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Soul-Winning 



A Problem and Its Solution 



By 

Phidellia p. Carroll, Ph.D. 



With an Introduction by the 

Bishop Charles H, Fowler LL.D. 




NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & GRAHAM 



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Copyright, 1905, by 
EATON & MAINS 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction 5 

Part I. — The Importance of Soul-Win- 
ning 9 

Part II.— Personal Effort in Soul-Win- 
ning 12 

Part III.— A Successful Method 15 

Part IV. — Steps Leading to Christ, 23 

Part V.— Children Won by Personal Ef- 
fort 74 

Part VI. — A Revival Not Absolutely Es- 

SENTiAt' TO Soul-Winning 79 

Part VXL— Preparation for Soul-Win- 
ning 107 



INTRODUCTION 



Methodism is the revivalist of modern 
times. It came into a group of formal 
churches. It passed by. The hem of its 
trailing garments touched the cold, silent 
forms, and virtue went out into them. They 
felt a new throb of life and sprang upon their 
feet and began anew the saving work in the 
world. Thus the birthright and birthmark 
of Methodism is revival work. 

Methodism as a form of work means the 
best available method under the circumstances. 
It is not bound by set forms, but by certain 
results. It must secure the new life. This 
life certainly secured is free to make its natu- 
ral manifestation. Its forms and expressions 
are as varied as the habits of the peoples 
and communities touched. It is thus adapted 
to every grade of culture, from the peasant 
to the philosopher. 

The blind men healed by the Saviour did 
not say to their fellows, ^'You are not healed 
because Jesus did not send you to wash in 
the pool of Siloam," nor ''because Jesus did 
not touch your eyes." No, they looked into 



6 Introduction 

each other's eyes and said, ''We see." So 
in the work of Methodism it does not demand 
the same form. It asks only, ''Do you know 
God in the pardon of sin?" Its revival work 
is under one law, namely, divine power work- 
ing through human agencies, supernatural 
power working along natural lines. 

In earlier days, and in many places now, 
the revival is reached by a campaign in which 
the entire community is moved upon by stated 
and persistent preaching of the gospel. The 
community is instructed in the doctrines and 
truths of the gospel, and the church members 
make special prayer and personal labor among 
their friends and neighbors. The Spirit of 
God, always ready to use any and all avail- 
able means for reaching the unsaved, honors 
these agencies, and multitudes are brought 
to the supreme decision and accept God in 
Christ. 

The wide and constant preaching of the 
Word and the faithful teaching in the Sunday 
schools seem sometimes to modify these gen- 
eral and sweeping displays of saving grace. 
People are brought into the new life with less 
impressive efforts, but not with less certainty. 
The church passes through changes in her 
methods and manifestations. But she must 



Introduction 7 

have the same spirit and the same simple and 
fundamental truths of the gospel, the same 
absolute surrender to the will of God, and 
impHcit faith in the unbreakable promises of 
God. 

We are in this book introduced to old and 
yet new and effective methods of work, not 
superseding the old campaigns, but supple- 
menting them. We see a closer and more 
personal approach and appeal. It is less the 
charge of a brigade, and more the careful 
work of the sharpshooter. 

A British officer who was in the battle of 
New Orleans said that as they neared the 
American breastworks they saw one man be- 
hind a bale of cotton fighting on his own hook. 
There was a puff of smoke yonder, and by the 
side of the officer there was an empty saddle. 
Then the man reloaded his gun, scanned the 
line a moment, and then another puff of smoke 
and another empty saddle. He said: ^'That 
man commanded my attention more than the 
whole line of breastworks. It was a great 
relief when the artillery opened upon us and 
we were somewhat covered by the smoke of 
battle." This is the value of this book — to 
man the works with sharpshooters fighting on 
their own hook. 



8 Introduction 

Part III presents the work of soul-winning 
in illustrative examples, in concrete form. 
This presents the work in personal appeal. 
In this individualized age, in which every man 
stands on his own feet, this method is adapted 
to the varying conditions of men. It requires 
courage and consecration to seek interviews 
with prominent men to urge upon them the 
claims of the gospel. But this is the work 
required for the success of the church. 
Too many of us find it too hard to fol- 
low this close method. It is compara- 
tively easy to preach and exhort people 
who come to the church. The prominent 
unchurched people are too often allowed to 
drift without attention. The success set forth 
in this book presses this important duty upon 
our ministers. If every minister would follow 
the plan of work here illustrated and follow 
it in the spirit of Jesus Christ new power 
would come to the church. The example and 
spirit v/ould extend to the laity. They would 
feel God's claim, and the church would enjoy 
perpetual revival. 

We expect for this direct, straightforward 
book marked usefulness wherever it is read 
and applied. 

Charles H. Fowler. 



SOUL-WINNING 



PART I 

The Importance of Sotil-Wfnning 

The writer is a most ardent believer in gen- 
uine revivals of religion. Not once has he 
allowed a single season to pass during a pas- 
torate of fifteen years without putting forth 
special revival efforts, and his ministry has 
always been fruitful in revivals, while some 
mighty spiritual awakenings have stirred the 
communities where he has labored. But he 
has never closed a meeting without a sense 
of defeat because so many of the leading men 
of the community and congregation were not 
reached, and in many instances did not attend 
the services at all during the special meetings. 
Then, too, the writer came to believe that 
indiscriminate personal work in the public 
congregation, which seemed so fruitful a few 
years ago, had in many communities not only 
lost its power, but had become a positive 



10 Soul-Winning 

hindrance and embarrassment to revival work. 
He was tempted to import a ''professional" 
evangelist in order that he might attract the 
unsaved masses, and especially the unsaved 
business men, to the revival ; but then he could 
not resist the feeling that God had called 
him to be a soul-winner, and that he must 
inaugurate methods which would be effective 
in winning men. What earnest pastor has not 
felt a sense of defeat in revival effort, and 
wept over the "desolations of Zion," and cried 
out in the language of the psalmist, ''Wilt 
thou not revive us again : that thy people may 
rejoice in thee?" (Psa. 85. 6) — or with the 
prophet, "O Lord, revive thy work in the 
midst of the years, in the midst of the years 
make known; in wrath remember mercy" 
(Hab. 3. 2)? And yet the multitudes have 
not been saved. 

"Forward movements" have not met the 
demands of the hour. The Twentieth Cen- 
tury Thank Offering Movement was a finan- 
cial success. A sum exceeding twenty million 
dollars was placed in the lap of the church, 
and used in the liquidation of debts and for 
other specified objects. There were also 
"gracious revivals and numerous conversions 
in many parts of the country, but we must 



Soul- Winning ii 

admit with heart-searching and humiliation 
that no such general, widespread, and contin- 
uous spiritual quickening of the church at 
large as had been hoped for was realized." 
But the demand is still upon us for some gen- 
eral movement which will be successful in a 
most vital and important sense in winning 
to Christ those whom the ordinary revival 
fails to reach. In recognition of this demand 
the Gideons, a traveling men's organization, 
and the Brotherhood of Saint Paul, and vari- 
ous other organizations, have sprung into 
existence, all of which have been blessed of 
God in a greater or less degree, but none of 
which seems to adequately meet the demand 
that confronts the church. In the writer's 
opinion it is not more organisations that we 
need, but more practical personal work which 
will result in the salvation of men, not en 
masse, but one by one. In this little work 
we hope to be able to suggest how every child 
of God may become a fruit-bearer and thus 
measure up to Christ's ideal of the Christian 
life. 



PART II 

Personal Effort in Soul-Winning 

Personal effort was Christ's method and 
has had the stamp of the apostoHc seal upon 
it, as well as the approval of all successful 
soul-winners during the entire Christian dis- 
pensation. 'Tor the Son of man is come 
to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 
19. 10). He came not only to save, but to 
seek, the lost. He sat at the well and con- 
versed with a woman whose life was not very 
clean, but in that apparently simple interview 
he laid bare her sins and she soon went forth 
to tell the Samaritans what she had seen and 
heard, saying, "Come, see a man, which told 
me all things that ever I did: is not this the 
Christ?'' (John 4. 29.) Lost men and women 
do not seek Christ till he first seeks them. 
Those lost and steeped in sin are the burden 
of his sympathetic heart. It was for them 
that he left his throne, assumed the robe of 
flesh, and suffered unto death upon the cross. 
He said of himself, "For I am not come to 
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" 
(Matt. 9. 13). "I say unto you, that likewise 
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that 



Soul- Winning 13 

repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just 
persons, which need no repentance" (Luke 
15. 7). He called, equipped, and commissioned 
his disciples and church to prosecute the work 
he began. ''As my Father hath sent me, even 
so send I you." ''And the lord said unto his 
servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, 
and compel them to come in, that my house 
may be filled." In the words of the late Dr. 
J. O. Peck, "We are charged with the same 
commission and are impelled to the same 
work ; we are to seek the lost. We deny Christ 
as our Master when we wait for them to seek 
us. This is the only way to solve the tre- 
mendous problem of reaching the multitudes 
continually perishing under the very shadows 
of our churches." The disciples of the Lord 
Jesus stamped personal effort in soul-winning 
with their approval in their own efforts to 
win followers to their Lord and Master. "One 
of the two which heard John speak and fol- 
lowed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 
He first findeth his own brother Simon, and 
saith unto him, We have found the Messias, 
which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And 
he brought him to Jesus." This method was 
practiced by Paul. He won Timothy and ever 
after reckoned him as a trophy of divine grace 



14 Soul-Winning 

and a son in the gospel. Personal effort has 
the approval of those who have been preemi- 
nently successful as soul-winners. Mr. D. 
L. Moody, who was noted for the elaborate 
preparation, the great choruses and choirs, 
and who won many signal victories on both 
sides of the Atlantic, where thousands of 
precious souls were influenced by him to make 
their peace through Christ, notwithstanding 
he came forth from so many battlefields with 
victory perched upon his banner, lived to 
see the day when he confessed that, ''After 
all, the most effective and fruitful work of 
grace can only be secured by the consecration 
of the great masses of our membership to 
reach the people one by one." He expressed 
the ardent hope that he might be permitted 
to live to send out from his schools a multitude 
of young men and women all on fire with zeal 
for Christ, to give themselves as personal 
workers in soul-winning. The best and most 
efficient service that can possibly be rendered 
is that which brings us in contact with the 
unsaved personally, as we strive to lead them 
to Christ one by one. Thousands may be thus 
saved who would otherwise go out into eter- 
nity without ''hope in God and the world to 
come.'' 



PART III 

A Saccessfal Method 

Call on men in their places of business, 
and thus come in touch with them socially. 
During the earlier years of the writer's min- 
istry our calling was limited chiefly to the 
homes of the people. We usually called in 
the afternoon, when neither men nor children 
were at home, the men being at the shop, 
store, or office, while the children were in 
school. Later we changed this plan and made 
as many calls as possible in the evening, and 
still later we took a list of the names of men 
and called on them at their places of business. 
After cultivating them for a short time so- 
cially and manifesting an interest in them, we 
have asked them boldly why they were not 
members of the church. Of course, we would 
receive various replies, the most frequent an- 
swer being, ''I scarcely know — carelessness, I 
suppose." Then we have been careful to 
suggest to the man, so no one else would 
hear it, "Will you allow me to come to your 
home and have a talk with you about your 



i6 Soul-Winning 

spiritual condition?'' We never make this 
request in the presence of another, or so 
another can possibly hear it. Men are so 
sensitive that they will resent the slightest 
publicity connected with such effort. We 
have called men aside from the desk and 
counter and then quietly made the request. 
They always appreciate this delicate method 
of approach. Make the calls on business men 
exceedingly brief. They are busy. Many of 
them are employees whose time belongs to 
another. We have made an engagement for 
a private interview without taking two min- 
utes' time in the office or store. We have al- 
ways been careful to emphasize the purpose 
for which the call was to be made, for two 
reasons: (i) That the man would be studying 
about his spiritual condition and in a sense 
prepared for the interview ; (2) That he would 
not resent the effort to be put forth in his 
spiritual interest. 

Preparation for the Interview, If the 
meeting is to be at the home of the man, see 
the wife or mother in advance, and tell her 
that you are to call on the husband or son 
and would like to have a private talk with 
him. Personal workers should learn all they 
can in advance about the individual. The 



Soul-Winning 17 

pastor may often gain much valuable infor- 
mation from some discreet church member 
as to his views, prejudices, etc. It will fre- 
quently be necessary to see a wife, sister, or 
friend. 

The Call Itself, Earnestness should be a 
dominant characteristic of the personal worker 
at the very inception of the interview. We 
presume almost every personal worker has 
been at a loss to know how to begin. It has 
been our method to induce the man to talk 
on some subject of mutual interest, if possible, 
but especially some subject with which he 
himself is entirely conversant, and then finally 
to suggest, ''I appreciate the privilege of this 
hour, and hope the greatest good may grow 
out of it." Then we have said, ''You believe 
in the Bible and Christianity?'' If he acknowl- 
edges that he does, ''You therefore recognize 
the importance of having a change of heart, 
of being converted ?" If once more he assents, 
we have said, "If I can point out the way, 
and indicate the steps which must be taken 
in order to become a Christian, and if these 
steps should be based on common sense as 
well as the Word of God, and if they appeal 
to your reason, and appear to you to be fea- 
sible, would you be willing to take the steps 



i8 Soul-Winning 

which will lead you to a satisfactory solution 
of the problem of your personal salvation and 
of your personal relationship to God?" Men 
often hesitate, but we invariably hold them to 
this proposition. 

The success of the interview hinges upon 
two things, namely: a personal commitment 
to a belief in God's Word, and a willingness 
to take the steps when the way is made plain. 

Clearing Azvay the Rubbish, Often an en- 
tire interview will be spent in clearing away 
the rubbish which must be gotten rid of or the 
effort cannot but prove abortive. We remem- 
ber a most vivid illustration of this fact: In 
the town of C. the writer was told that the 
banker was one of the most influential men in 
the village, and if he could be induced to give 
himself to Christ no doubt he would bring 
many to the Lord through his influence; but 
our informant added, ''He is an infidel, and I 
fear that he is a hopeless case." 

We went to the bank and visited for a few 
moments twice, and then we said, ''Mr. A., I 
would like to see you outside of business 
hours and talk to you about your spiritual 
condition." 

He blushed like a maiden, and replied : "All 
right; we have supper at six o'clock. Come 



Soul-Winning 19 

over at six-thirty. I would like to have a 
talk with you." 

Promptly at the hour appointed we were 
there, for we have always been scrupulous 
in being exactly on time. He introduced the 
subject himself; addressing us, he said: *'I 
don't want to take any advantage of you, so 
I will be perfectly frank with you. I do not 
believe the Bible. I believe parts of it, it is 
true, but there are portions of it which I do 
not believe and have not from boyhood." 

We replied: ''I am glad to see you thus 
frank, and I will be just as honest with you. 
Please state your objections, and if I cannot 
answer them I will acknowledge plainly that 
I cannot." 

He was a bright, keen, wide-awake business 
man, a little past middle life. He had had col- 
lege advantages, and was very successful in 
business, and to say we dreaded the interview 
is putting it mildly ; but we breathed a prayer 
for divine help. The questions he asked did 
not indicate that he wanted to provoke an 
argument, nor did they make him appear to 
be an opponent and enemy of God's Word, 
but they seemed to emanate from the heart 
of an honest ''doubting Thomas" to whom 
many things in the Bible appeared to be unreal 



20 Soul-Winning 

and fanciful. We answered the questions the 
best we could, and met the objections made 
against divine revelation by appealing to what 
had been accomplished by the preaching of 
the gospel of the cross. We remembered the 
Master's admonition, "Believe that I am in 
the Father and the Father in me, or else be- 
lieve me for the very work's sake." 

At the close of the hour's siege the privilege 
was asked of praying with him and his family. 
His wife, although a member of a ritualistic 
church, and he himself, who had not been 
reared under Methodist influences, very cor- 
dially granted our request. After prayer he 
said, with marked evidences of deep concern, 
"I have never seen things as I do to-night. 
If it would not be too much trouble I would 
like to have you come and have another talk 
with me." 

We said, ''All right ; suppose I come to-mor- 
row evening at the same hour." 

That time being agreed upon, we took leave 
of him and departed for the church, for special 
services were in progress. 

At the meeting on the second evening more 
questions were asked, some of which were most 
difficult and showed that he was determined 
not to surrender his infidelity without contest- 



Soul-Winning 21 

ing every inch of the ground. At the close 
of the conversation, which lasted for an hour 
and a half, we again asked permission to pray. 
(The devil can stand lots of talk, 

"But Satan trembles when he sees 
The weakest saint upon his knees.") 

The prayer being ended, he grasped us by 
the hand and said, ''Mr. Carroll, I am forty- 
four years old, and I declare I never saw this 
matter in the light that I do to-night." 

Our reply was, 'T would advise you to join 
the Methodist Church next Sunday morning 
on probation, conversion or no conversion. 
This suggestion is made because neither of the 
churches in which you and your wife were 
brought up is here." 

He replied, "I will make you no promises." 

'T am not anxious to evoke a promise from 
you, but I am anxious for you to surrender 
to Christ, and I believe this to be a step in the 
direction of salvation. For if you join the 
church on probation, long before the six 
months shall have expired you will be rejoic- 
ing in the consciousness of sins forgiven. If 
you do not walk in the light you now have, 
I fear that you may never have as much light 
again in which to walk; for, Mr. A., I am 



22 Soul-Winning 

leaving you to-night with the feehng that un- 
less you yield to Christ at this time you are 
nearer the kingdom than you will ever be 
again." 

He said, 'That may be true." 

The Results, On Sunday morning we 
preached from the text, 'Then Agrippa said 
unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be 
a Christian" (x\cts 26. 28), using as a theme, 
''A Crisis in Human Life." Of course, we 
made the strongest appeal we could, having 
that brother in mind. At the close of the dis- 
course, in response to an invitation, the man, 
his wife and daughter, and twenty others, 
including two merchants and their wives, came 
to the altar and joined the church, and with 
the tears running down his face Mr. A. sur- 
rendered to Christ that morning, and estab- 
lished the family altar that night. He is now 
one of the leading official members in that 
church. His influence did tell for Christ, for 
in that revival campaign between forty and 
fifty souls accepted Christ and united with the 
church. 



PART IV 

Steps Leading to Christ 

There are four steps which lead to Christ. 
Every student of theology is familiar with 
them. But to get these steps reduced to a 
workable plan, so that we can sit down with an 
honest, earnest man who has not yet accepted 
Christ, and explain the way so that he will 
make an unconditional surrender of himself to 
his Saviour, is quite another thing. In our 
personal work, when we have come to the 
private interview, and the man has committed 
himself to a belief in God's Word, we have 
said frankly, ^'The very Word in which you 
profess to believe condemns you." Then we 
take the Testament and base the instruction 
on "Thus saith the Lord," saying, ''Since, 
therefore, the Bible condemns us, is it not 
of first importance that we take the steps which 
lead us out of condemnation into a position of 
life and safety?" The man will usually say, 
''Yes, that would seem to be the only intelli- 
gent course to pursue." Then we say, "If you 
would like to have me, I will define the steps 



24 SOUL-WINNIXG 

which every one of us must take in becoming 
a Christian, in definitely accepting Christ as 
our personal Saviour." We wait for a request 
to advance, so that he will feel that we respect 
his wishes in the matter and are not disposed 
to intrude our services upon him. 

Salvation Steps: i. Conviction. 2. Contri- 
tion. 3. Conversion. 4. Confession. 

These steps must not only be explained and 
their importance proved by the Word of God^ 
but we must emphasize the importance of tak- 
ing them and doing it now. To explain these 
steps so as to influence a man to take them, 
one must have his Testament well in hand so 
that he can turn to and read the passages 
readily. It is better to read the passages 
from the Word than to quote from memory. 
If one quotes from memory he might arouse 
in the seeker a suspicion that the quotation 
was not correct. Then, too, we have had men 
say to us, when we have read certain scrip- 
tures, ''Where is that? I did not know that 
that was in the Bible. Let me read it.'' So 
that we are thoroughly convinced that the 
reading of the Word is far better than 
quoting it. 

In a Western city, there lived a Mr. B., 
whose wife was a member of our church and 



Soul-Winning 25 

a most consistent and consecrated Christian. 
She said to us, soon after we entered upon 
the work in that charge, ''My husband is not 
a Christian. He is a good moral man, but has 
not been converted. I want you to seek an 
opportunity to see him and have a talk with 
him, for I feel that he is to be saved under 
your personal influence ; for he has heard you 
preach and was favorably impressed." 

He was a commercial traveler, and was only 
at home from Friday evening till Monday 
morning. We had not seen him to know him, 
but one Friday evening we went to his home 
and met him. After a brief social chat we 
casually remarked, ''Mr. B., I have wondered 
why you do not belong to the church, with 
your wife and son." 

He said : "I don't know, sir, that I am fit for 
church membership. I do not know that I 
have been converted, that I have had a change 
of heart. I was brought up in a ritualistic 
church and confirmed in it at the age of four- 
teen, and I am now fifty-five years old, and I 
do not know that I have ever been converted." 

We hastened to reply, "Mr. B., you may be 
converted and know it." 

He said, "Well, that might be." 

We said, "It will be if you determine that 



26 Soul-Winning 

it shall be. Suppose I come over to-morrow 
afternoon and that we have a talk about your 
spiritual condition." 

He said, "1 don't know." 

We asked him if he knew a certain business 
man who had been converted through our per- 
sonal efforts in a quiet way at his home. His 
reply was, '^Yes, I know him very well." 

We then explained briefly how that man 
came to accept Christ, and he said, almost 
abruptly, ''You come to-morrow afternoon at 
two-thirty." 

We bade him good-night, and two-thirty 
the next afternoon found us in his parlor. 
We had spent considerable time in prayer and 
meditation, feeling that a real conflict was 
in waiting. We asked him to tell us about his 
business, and he told us that he had been a 
traveling salesman for the company for which 
he was then working for the last twenty-five 
years, having spent most of his life since he 
was mustered out of the Union army at the 
close of the civil war in their employ. We 
said, ''I have been intensely interested in these 
reminiscences, and you could teach me much 
about the hardware business, but I think I 
know a little more about the matter of salva- 
tion than you do; and now, since you have 



Soul-Winning 27 

kindly granted this personal interview, I hope 
to be able to help you. Do you believe the 
Bible?" 

He said, ''I do, every word of it." 

*'Then, of course, you believe that we must 
be born again if we would be saved?" 

"Yes, but that is a matter that has given me 
much concern. I have lived a moral life and 
tried to treat my fellow men as I would have 
them treat me, and I can hardly realize that 
I am in the same category with the vile and 
outbreaking sinner." 

"I replied: "That is a common experience 
with men like yourself, whose morality is un- 
questionable, and whose outward life is exem- 
plary. But Paul says, 'There is no difference : 
for all have sinned, and come short of the 
glory of God.' " I turned to Rom. 3. 22, 23, 
and read this scripture to him, and said: "I 
am not surprised to find you in this attitude, 
for, as Dr. Wilbur Chapman has affirmed, men 
like yourself will say, 'What! no difference 
between the man who has fallen to the lowest 
depths of sin and wretchedness and the man 
who has only swerved a little from the path 
of duty and the law of God? There is a dif- 
ference in heinousness and degradation, wide 
as the poles, but no difference as far as guilt 



28 Soul-Winning 

is concerned, for both have rejected the Son 
of God, and this is the sin of sins/ You, no 
doubt, are ready to confess that you have, 
despite your moraHty, fallen short many times, 
and actually sinned against God." 

^'O, yes, I would not deny that,'' he replied. 

*'Well, then, you need to repent of your sins 
as though you were the most vile and out- 
breaking sinner." 

It is hard for us to be thus honest with un- 
converted men when we are brought face to 
face with them. It is easy enough to preach 
to people about sin and repentance, but quite 
a different task to say, as Nathan said to 
David, ''Thou art the man." But business 
men resent any other method. To tell them 
that all they need to do is to come into the 
church is to repulse them, for they feel that 
merely joining the church has no power to 
free the soul from guilt and cleanse the heart 
from sin. Therefore to invite a man to unite 
with the church without conversion, unless it 
be into a preparatory membership which will 
strengthen his desire for salvation and in- 
tensify his desire to seek Christ, is to shirk 
the responsibility of leading men to Jesus, and 
to become traitors to Christ and his cause. 

Then we called his attention to Nicodemus, 



Soul-Winning 29 

who came to Jesus by night, and reminded him 
of how Christ told Nicodemus that in spite 
of his morahty he must be born again. Then 
we said: 

^'Let us examine these steps, which if taken 
will lead us to Christ. Notice the first step — 
conviction. Conviction, Mr. B., differs in dif- 
ferent persons. A vile, desperate character, 
one who has committed some flagrant sin, 
would in all probability be almost over- 
whelmed with condemnation; but with the 
moral man, the man who has respect for the 
laws of God and man, conviction would mani- 
fest itself in the form of desire. Two illus- 
trations are recorded in God's Word. The 
first is conviction of the overwhelming type. 
David had taken Uriah's wife, and to cover his 
sin had caused his faithful official to be placed 
in a most dangerous position in the army 
where he was killed; and then seemed to be 
oblivious to his double crime of adultery and 
murder until God, through his prophet Nathan, 
aroused his conscience. Then David went out 
and wept bitterly, and said, 'Against thee, thee 
only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy 
sight: that thou mightest be justified when 
thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest' 
(Psa. 51. 4). To Nicodemus conviction came 



30 Soul-Winning 

in the form of a desire. The whole story as 
recorded in the third chapter of John shows 
that he was a practical man of affairs and 
came to Jesus at night and sought a private, 
uninterrupted interview with him. The Mas- 
ter, notwithstanding Nicodemus was a member 
of the Jewish church and a leading official in 
the Jewish Sanhedrin, told him plainly that 
he must be born again. 'Jesus answered and 
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 
except a man be born again, he cannot see 
the kingdom of God.' Then Christ unfolded 
the plan of salvation to his mind, and Nico- 
demus finally accepted Jesus and became his 
open and avowed disciple. 

"The second step leading to Christ, Mr. B., 
is contrition. Contrition is deep sorrow and 
self-condemnation, w4th thorough repentance 
for sin because it is displeasing to God. It 
implies a feeling of love for God. It also 
implies self-abnegation. No man can believe 
in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation until 
he renounces self. You remember Jesus gives 
this command, which is recorded in Luke 
9. 23 : Tf any man will come after me, let him 
deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and 
follow me.' This includes the moral man as 
well as the outbreaking sinner. 



Soul- Winning 31 

''A record is given us of a self-righteous 
man and one who was thoroughly contrite, 
both of whom approached God in prayer. This 
account is left us, I am sure, that we may 
make no mistake in our approach to God." 
Turning to Luke, eighteenth chapter, we read 
from verses 9 to 14: ''And he spake this para- 
ble unto certain which trusted in themselves 
that they were righteous, and despised others : 
Two men went up into the temple to pray; 
the one a Pharisee, and the other a pubHcan. 
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with him- 
self, God^ I thank thee that I am not as other 
men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or 
even as this publican. I fast twice in the 
week, I give tithes of all I possess. And the 
publican, standing afar off, did not lift up so 
much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon 
his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a 
sinner. I tell you, this man went down to 
his house justified rather than the other: for 
every one that exalteth himself shall be 
abased ; and he that humbleth himself shall be 
exalted." 

Then was described the nature of genuine 
repentance in a few pregnant words, remem- 
bering John Wesley's definition: "By repent- 
ance I mean the conviction of sin, producing 



32 Soul-Winning 

real desires and sincere resolutions of amend- 
ment. True repentance is a grace of the 
Holy Spirit, whereby a sinner, from a sense 
of his sins, an apprehension of the mercy of 
God in Christ, doth with grief and hatred of 
his sins turn from them to God with full pur- 
pose of, and endeavors after, future obedience." 

Luke gives us an illustration of genuine 
repentance in the case of Peter after his de- 
nial of Christ. ''The cock crew. And the Lord 
turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter 
remembered the word of the Lord, how he had 
said unto him. Before the cock crow, thou 
shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, 
and wept bitterly." 

We said further: ''Godly sorrow arises es- 
pecially from the view of sin in its relation 
to God." An illustration was given. "Here is 
a petty thief, detected and arrested for steal- 
ing. He seems penitent. He weeps and 
evinces great anguish of soul. He evokes our 
sympathy, and we come to the conclusion that 
if the 'poor fellow' was released he would 
resist future temptations and live an honest 
life. But his subsequent conduct convinces 
us that our faith was not well founded. For 
after serving his term in prison, and receiving 
his liberty, he repeats the offense against the 



Soul-Winning 33 

law of the land. His sorrow was a worldly 
sorrow. He was sorry because he was appre- 
hended, and, if he was not a hardened crim- 
inal, he was sorry that he had disgraced him- 
self and his friends, but not sorry that he 
had committed an offense against society and 
broken God's law, for he repeats the crime.'' 
But a godly sorrow is so deep and pungent 
that it causes us to loathe sin, renounce it, 
and turn away from it. The sin we recognize 
to have been committed against God. His 
law has been violated. He has been offended. 
Upon this point the attention has been fixed 
with absorbing and overpowering interest, and 
from that arises the depth and pungency of 
the sorrow. The soul with a sense of its loss 
turns to God with humble confession. 

The following examples taken from the 
Word of God will always give emphasis to 
such an interview : "For they themselves show 
of us what manner of entering in we had unto 
you, and how ye turned to God from idols 
to serve the living and true God" (i Thess. 
I. 9). This kind of sorrow is characterized 
by humble confession : "If we confess our sins, 
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
If we say that we have not sinned, we make 



34 Soul- Winning 

him a liar, and his word is not in lis'' (i John 
I. 9, lo). 

The Rev. Benjamin Field says: 'The sor- 
row of the world may involve the deepest 
regret for having sinned, but has none of the 
elements of repentance mentioned above. It 
terminates on the world and may be pro- 
duced by the mere dread of punishment, or 
by the mere shame of detection, or by the loss 
and suffering and disrepute which the sin has 
occasioned. Hence if the sin be forsaken it 
is not because there is any deep sense of its 
intrinsic evil in the sight of God. There is 
no apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, 
no real hearty turning to God, remorse, shame, 
fear; these are the emotions that stir within, 
and, as in the case of Judas and many, many 
more, such sorrow worketh death by produ- 
cing the horrors of despair or the guilt of 
suicide.'' 

The personal worker cannot insist too 
strongly on a genuine repentance, nor be too 
careful in explaining its nature. To fail here 
is to fail in all worlds. Success here means 
success everywhere. It is to be feared that 
many people come into the church without 
genuine repentance, and that they soon sub- 
side into unthinking believers who fill all our 



Soul-Winning 35 

churches, having a name to Hve, but are dead. 
By taking due care to safeguard men at this 
point we will build up a strong, spiritual 
church, which will be dead to sin and alive 
unto righteousness. Every Christian worker 
will find it hard to lead men to the cross 
through the door of repentance, as we expe- 
rienced with the brother in question, but there 
is no other way. It was the Master himself 
who said, ''Verily, verily, I say tmto you, 
He that entereth not by the door into the 
sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, 
the same is a thief and a robber" (John 10. i). 
Self-renunciation confronts the unregener- 
ate at the very threshold of salvation, and, to 
adopt the language of the late Bishop Clark, 
'Terhaps there is not one of more difficult per- 
formance or one more repugnant to the unre- 
newed heart. If gold could purchase religion, 
thousands would pay the price. If long and 
toilsome pilgrimages were enjoined, how 
cheerfully they would be undertaken! But 
to come as a condemned and wretched sinner, 
to know and to feel his own vileness and to 
realize himself to be without merit, without 
claim ! to have the heart wrung with peniten- 
tial agony as he looks to Christ and cries out, 
'Other refuge have I none, hangs my help- 



2^6 Soul- Winning 

less soul on thee/ this is the difficult self-denial 
that brings us to the cross!" Herein lies a 
danger in personal evangelism. We may by 
the might of personal contact and the elo- 
quence of heart appeal persuade men to unite 
with us in church fellowship; but as a true 
mother would be faithful to her infant in its 
helplessness, and as a conscientious teacher 
would deal honestly with his pupils, so must 
the personal worker be true to Christ and his 
fellow men in dealing with immortal souls. 

The third step which leads to Christ is con- 
version. About the word ''conversion" great 
mysteries have clustered, and the unregen- 
erate dread to approach it. This we frankly 
conceded, but we said: ''Mr. B., let us look 
into the Word of God and see what conversion 
means. Theologians tell us that conversion 
is a spiritual and moral change attending a 
change of belief with conviction; a change 
of heart; an exchange of the service of the 
world for the service of God; a change of 
the ruling disposition of the soul, involving 
a transformation of the heart and life. This 
word 'conversion' has given us no little trouble. 
When I was a child no one so explained it 
to me that my child mind could grasp it. 
When I sought Christ my instructors said, 



Soul- Winning 2^7 

'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved.' That was just what I was 
most anxious to do, but conversion confronted 
me with its unHmited mysteries, and nO' one 
thought to tell me what it meant. The fault 
was with my instructors, for Paul has made 
the matter exceedingly explicit." 

We read Romans, twelfth chapter and sec- 
ond verse: ''And be not conformed to this 
world: but be ye transformed by the renew- 
ing of your mind, that ye may prove what is 
that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will 
of God." Then was emphasized the fact that 
conversion, about which so much of mystery 
has clustered, is the renewing of the mind. 
In an unconverted state we are conformed to 
this world. Our pleasures are extracted from 
it; we are worldly in our aspirations and 
conform to this world in our endeavors; but 
when we make up our minds to serve God at 
any and every possible sacrifice we are no 
longer conformed to this world, but we are 
transformed because our mind is renewed, for 
we have determined by the grace of God to 
live a Christian life. 

Paul enlightens us still further on this sub- 
ject in his letter to the Ephesians (4. 22-24) : 
"That ye put off concerning the former con- 



38 Soul-Winning 

versation the old man, which is corrupt ac- 
cording to the deceitful lusts ; and be renewed 
in the spirit of your mind ; and that ye put on 
the new man, which after God is created in 
righteousness and true holiness." 

We affirmed that when one is renewed in 
the spirit of his mind he is converted. He is 
a new creature. ''Therefore if any man be 
in Christ, he is a new creature: old things 
are passed away; behold, all things are be- 
come new" (2 Cor. 5. 17). Everyone in this 
position stands in the sight of God as justi- 
fied. This condition was fully explained. To 
quote the Rev. Benjamin Field once more, 
''To justify a person is a law phrase denoting 
the action of a judge who after a fair legal 
trial declares a man innocent who was accused 
at his bar and acquits him by a sentence pro- 
nounced in the hearing of the accuser and 
the witnesses." The man passes out of the 
court, free from all blame. The accusation 
has fallen to the ground. He is justified in 
the legal, proper sense of the term. Evan- 
gelical justification has to do with a man as 
guilty and ungodly. He is a convicted of- 
fender; a pardon, however, is granted which 
destroys the connection between his conduct 
and its consequences. This is justification 



Soul-Winning 39 

improper or secondary, and is the general 
meaning of the word as used in the epistles 
of Saint Paul. Hence the definition, ''Justi- 
fication is an act of God's free grace wherein 
he pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as 
righteous in his sight only for the sake of 
Christ ;" and the fuller definition of John Wes- 
ley, ''The plain scriptural notion of justifica- 
tion is pardon, the forgiveness of sins. It is 
that act of God the Father whereby, for the 
sake of the propitiation made by the blood 
of his Son, he showeth forth his righteousness 
(or mercy) by the remission of the sins that 
are passed." 

While it would be impossible to enter into 
as lengthy an explanation of justification as 
the above definitions would involve, neverthe- 
less a full explanation of the justified state 
and the steps leading to it must be made if we 
would lead men intelligently. It is the cus- 
tom of the writer to be most explicit at this 
point, meeting all possible opposition by the 
Word of God. We called Mr. B.'s attention 
to the words of the inspired writers: "Be it 
known unto you therefore, men and brethren, 
that through this man is preached unto you 
the forgiveness of sins : and by him all that 
believe are justified from all things, from 



40 Soul-Winning 

which ye could not be justified by the law 
of Moses" (Acts 13. 38, 39). ''But to him 
that worketh not, but believeth on him that 
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted 
for righteousness. Even as David also de- 
scribeth the blessedness of the man, unto 
whom God imputeth righteousness without 
works, saying. Blessed are they whose iniq- 
uities are forgiven, and whose sins are cov- 
ered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord 
will not impute sin" (Rom. 4. 5-8). 

Confession is the last step which leads 
to Christ. We said once more : "Mr. B., the 
fourth step which brings us to Christ is con- 
fession. I will not ask you to believe what 
I might say on the subject, for infinitely too 
much is at stake to depend upon what any 
man might say. Let us once more turn to 
the New Testament and see what God says. 
In Romans, tenth chapter, ninth to thirteenth 
verses, we read, 'That if thou shalt confess 
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt be- 
lieve in thine heart that God hath raised him 
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with 
the heart man believeth unto righteousness ; 
and with the mouth confession is made unto 
salvation. For the scripture saith. Whoso- 
ever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 



Soul-Winning 41 

For there is no difference between the Jew 
and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is 
rich unto all that call upon him. For whoso- 
ever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall 
be saved.' " 

But we saw that our brother seemed mys- 
tified and unwilling to take the steps indicated ; 
and we tried to emphasize the love of God, and 
enlarged on the simplicity of the plan of salva- 
tion. We suggested to him that God in his 
Word has illustrated his love for us so that 
we would be glad to confess him. The psalm- 
ist proclaims both his love and pity for us: 
''Like as a father pitieth his children, so the 
Lord pitieth them that fear him." We ap- 
pealed to him as a father: ''You know how 
you pity your little boy or girl when they 
have done wrong. You pity them while they 
may be stubborn and rebellious; but you do 
not forgive them until they confess their fault 
and ask forgiveness. For you know as a father 
that if you were to grant your parental pardon 
and imprint the kiss of forgiveness while the 
child is disobedient and rebellious you would 
be untrue to your child and would be indulg- 
ing it in a course of waywardness which would 
end in destruction j and even though your very 
heart would be almost breaking in your anxi- 



42 Soul-Winning 

ety to forgive, for the child's sake you would 
wait for a confession. God deals with us in 
the same way. It was Jesus who said, 'If ye 
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
unto your children : how much more shall your 
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them 
that ask him?' I am so glad that in coming 
to God through Christ we do not have to do 
great things nor possess great knowledge; 
but we have simply to be obedient and comply 
with the reasonable conditions. God speaks 
to us through our children." 

In spite of the complete revelation that God 
has made of his love to us, when our natures 
are incrusted by sin, we doubt the love of God, 
and are not willing to trust him implicitly for 
salvation. In personal work for the Master 
we come to the place where we are afraid 
to make the final appeal to the unsaved lest 
they reject it, and the effort is blasted. We 
came to this point with Mr. B., and before 
making the appeal upon which we had based 
everything we ventured another illustration of 
God's love. We used the one Dr. Louis Albert 
Banks gives us in one of his sermons, which 
it seems to us not only perfectly illustrates the 
love of God, but also the ease with which we 
mav be saved. 



Soul-Winning 43 

^*In the summer of 1857 a student in a New 
England college, a very bright young man, 
was to have graduated with honors, but by 
some deviation from the rules of the school his 
record was impaired. His father, in his dis- 
appointment in his son, rebuked him in a way 
which angered the young man, and he vowed 
he would live at home no longer, and uttering 
abusive language he left the house. But his 
better nature soon reasserted itself, and he 
came back to the room he had so rudely left, 
and, throwing his arms around his father's 
neck, said : 'Father, I have done a very wicked 
thing. I am very sorry that I have abused you 
so. Can you forgive me ? I shall never again 
do such a thing.' The father's quick embrace 
and tender words removed the agony of guilt 
from his broken heart, and there was never 
after that an unkind word between them. 
Several years passed away. The young man 
had gone to the front as a volunteer, and as 
colonel of his regiment was wounded at 
Gettysburg, and on the sixteenth day after- 
ward his father found him. Gangrene had fol- 
lowed the amputation of the right limb just 
below the knee, and had nearly reached the 
fatal death-mark. He was given up to die. 
There was no hope remaining. Life was nearly 



44 Soul-Winning 

gone. The embrace he gave his father was 
feeble. His voice was that of one about to 
give up hfe : 'Dear father, how glad I am to 
see you once more, but you must do the talking 
now. I am almost gone.' 

''Returning from a short walk with the sur- 
geon, the father was asked by the colonel : 

" 'Have you been talking with the surgeon ?' 

" 'Yes/ 

" 'What did he say about me ?' 

" 'He says you must die.' 

*' 'How long does he think I can live ?' 

" 'Not m.ore than four days, and you may 
go at any moment.' 

" 'Father, you must not let me die now. I 
am afraid to die. I am not prepared to die. 
If I must, do tell me how. I know you can, 
for I have heard you do it for others.' 

" The father's heart was breaking, but this 
was no time or place for tears. There was 
work to be done, and done at once. There was 
no hesitation. Instantly the Holy Spirit said 
to the father, 'Tell him of the school incident. 
That IS what he wants ; I have held it in re- 
serve for this moment.' 

" 'My son, you feel guilty, do you not?' 

" 'Yes. That makes me afraid to die.' 

" 'You want to be forgiven, don't you ?' 



Soul-Winning 45 

"'Yes. Can I be?' 

" 'Certainly.' 

" 'Can I know it before I die?' 

"'Certainly.' 

" 'Do make this so plain that I can get hold 
of it,' and he raised his feeble arm and closed 
his hand as if to grasp it. 

" 'Do you remember the school incident 
years ago?' 

" 'Yes, very distinctly. I was thinking it all 
over a few days ago, as I thought of your 
coming.' 

" 'Do you remember how you came back 
into the house and, throwing your arms around 
my neck, asked me to forgive you?' 

" ^Yes.' 

"'What did I say to you?' 

" 'You said, "I forgive you with all my 
heart," and kissed me.' 

" 'Did you believe me ?' 

" 'Certainly. I never doubted your word.' 

" 'Did that take away your sense of guilt ?' 

" 'Yes.' 

"'All of it?' 

" 'Yes.' 

" 'Were you happy at home after that ?' 

" 'Yes. It seemed to me more than ever 
before.' 



46 SOUL-WINNIXG 

" 'This is just the thing for you to do now. 
Tell Jesus you are sorry you have abused him, 
and ask him to forgive you just as simply and 
sincerely as you did me. He says he will for- 
give, and you must take his word for it, just 
as you did mine.' 

" 'Why, father, is that the way to become 
a Christian?' 

" T don't know of any other.' 

" 'That is very simple and plain. Lean get 
hold of that.' 

"Very much exhausted by this effort, the 
colonel turned his head upon his pillow to rest. 
The father, having done all he could for his 
dying son, sank into a chair and gave way to 
a flow of tears, expecting soon to close his 
son's eyes in death. But that painful suspense 
did not last long. A change had taken place. 
A new life had come to that soul. Its first 
utterance changed the tears to joy. 

" 'Father, you need not cry any more. I 
don't want you should. I want you should 
sing. It's all right with me now ; I am happy ; 
Jesus has forgiven me ; I have told him how 
sorry I am that I have abused him so. He 
has forgiven me; I know he has, for he says 
he will, and I have taken his word for it just 
as I did yours. I am not afraid to die now; 



Soul-Winning 47 

but I don't think I shall ; I feel the stirring of 
a new life within me, and with it comes a feel- 
ing of a new life in my blood. I want you to 
sing that good old hymn we used to sing when 
I was a boy, at family prayers: 

" 'When I can read my title ckar 
To mansions in the skies, 
I bid farewell to every fear, 
And wipe my weeping eyes.* 

" Immediately the life-current which was 
rapidly ebbing away began to flow back; the 
pulse beating at the death-rate began to less- 
en, the eyes to brighten, the countenance to 
glow with new blood, the voice to sound more 
natural, the sadness to give place to cheerful- 
ness and hope. The surgeon coming in, as 
was his custom every day, to watch the rapid 
progress of the dreaded gangrene, put his 
fingers upon the pulse, and said with great 
surprise: 'Colonel, your pulse is wonderfully 
changed; you look better. What has hap- 
pened T 

" 'Well,' replied the colonel, 'father has 
shown me how to be a Christian, and I have 
done it. I am better; I ani going to get well.' 

"And, sure enough, the new life in his heart 
somehow or other put new strength into his 



48 Soul-Winning 

body, and he still lives a useful and noble 
Christian life." 

When we repeated this story to Mr. B. we 
said: ''Dr. Banks vouches for this as being 
absolutely true, and I have related it to you 
to show how easy it is for you to yield yourself 
to Christ. Mr. B., we have come to the end of 
our strength. I have tried to make these steps 
plain. Do they appeal to you ? Are you will- 
ing to take these steps now ?" 

He straightened himself up and was greatly 
agitated, and said with a great deal of severity 
in his tone, ''Young man, I am several years 
older than you, and I am not going to be 
crowded." 

I replied very calmly: "Mr. B., I feel almost 
aggrieved, for I have come into your home 
upon your invitation, at the hour appointed 
by yourself, to talk to you about your spiritual 
condition, and I have based all I have said to 
you on the Word of God, and have tried ex- 
ceedingly hard to help you, and now you in- 
sinuate that I have intruded on you in your 
own home, and trespassed on your hospitality." 

He replied, still greatly wrought up, and 
harsh in his tone : "I hardly meant that. But 
I want some time to study these points you 
have brought out. I will not be crowded." 



Soul-Winning 49 

I said, again maintaining my calmness: 
*'You have had fifty-five years of Hfe, and if 
you could have studied or reasoned your way 
to Christ you would have been saved ere this. 
But, Mr. B., you can't come to Christ through 
that medium. There is but one door, and that 
is repentance, and unless you take these steps 
I have indicated you will never be saved." 

He had risen from his chair, and was pac- 
ing the room, greatly disturbed. Finally he 
said, 'T will call Mrs. B. in, and you can pray 
before you go." 

In a moment his wife was in the room — 
she had been in an adjoining room praying 
during the entire interview, as she told me 
later — but before praying I turned and read 
some of the most hopeful and reassuring prom- 
ises, and then said : ''Mr. B., your wife has no 
doubt prayed for you many times, and now I 
am going to try to pray for you, but before 
we pray I want you to promise me that you 
will pray for yourself. Pray for two things — 
conversion and the consciousness of sins for- 
given. Will you do it?" 

I waited for a reply. I know God was 
present. I never felt more conscious of his 
presence in my life, and I was determined to 
press the battle to the very gates" for that 



50 SOUL-WIXXIXG 

one precious soul. Finally he replied, very 
earnestly, '"Yes, I wnll." 

We went onto our k::ee? ^efi^re God, and 
as we prayed I heard hi:: s :*:bmg. The great 
deep of his heart was ': r rir:: and the fountain 
of his tears began to flow, and when the prayer 
was ended he arose with a shout of victory and 
embraced his wife and said: "My dear, IVe 
surrendered! IVe surrendered! My soul is 
saved ! Glory to God ! I have surrendered !'* 

There is no joy known to human hearts so 
splendid and inspiring, and which so com- 
pletely breaks down all res:r:.::::s, as the joy 
of a heart in its first gla : t r :: ::ming to 
Christ and in having the rN^icv.lccge of sins 
forgiven. 

William Moriey Punshon, the celebrated 
English preacher, said : "There was joy in the 
heart of the sage at S>"racuse when he shouted 
aloud his glad Z urek?. I' in the hearing of 
the people wh: rr red him mad: there was 
joy in the sou' : S r Isaac Xewton when the 
first conceptior: : : : r law of gravitation burst 
on his thought as he sat imder his orchard 
tree: there was joy in the heart of Columbus 
in that moment of triumph over doubt and 
mutiny when the tiny land birds settled upon 
the sail of his vessel, bearing upon their timid 



Soul- Winning 51 

wings the welcomes of the new world. There 
is joy for the gold-finder when he sees the 
precious ore shine in his gold-pan; joy for 
children when new marvels of the v/orld open 
on their vision ; joy for the poet when he sends 
a glad thought through the world that stirs 
the pulse of mankind ; but none of these can 
compare with the joy of the ransomed sinner 
who can clasp his brother's hand and say, 
'Come, brother, we have found the Lord.' " 

Reader, if you have never known that joy, 
then the greatest happiness is in reservation 
for you. Won't you begin now to seek it ? 

*'Do the nearest duty, 

Grateful that your hand 
May do the work that angels 

Never could have planned. 
So shall love eternal 

Into life be wrought, 
And blessings spring from 

E'en your humblest thought." 

We left our brother and his companion to 
rejoice alone, feeling that the scene was too 
precious for any except God and the angels 
to look upon; but we departed knowing that 
the joy-bells of heaven had rung in glad ac- 
claim over another sinner that had repented. 
''I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in 



52 Soul-Winning 

heaven over one sinner that repenteth more 
than over ninety and nine just persons that 
need no repentance." 

The next morning (Sabbath) Mr. B. came 
to the church with his family, and when the 
opportunity was given he came forward, giv- 
ing his name to the church, and as he extend- 
ed his hand to me he said, ^'Brother Carroll, 
my soul is so happy!" He not only lived 
a consistent, but a most enthusiastic. Chris- 
tian. It was his delight to tell his business 
companions what the Lord had done for him. 
He did not come to Christ any too soon, for 
eighteen months from the date of his conver- 
sion, while standing at his desk, his heart 
ceased to beat, and he went to his crowning. 

The Conversion of a Moralist who 
Doubted the Divinity of Christ 

In a recent pastorate, when the writer was 
pastor of a church with a membership of five 
hundred and fifty, and was therefore exceed- 
ingly busy, he became interested in a Mr. C, 
who was between forty-five and fifty years old. 
He was a government employee with a force 
of more than one hundred men under his su- 
pervision. His wife, while a Christian and a 



Soul-Winning 53 

member of our church, was not spiritually 
active. The man was so busy that it was diffi- 
cult to detain him in conversation during 
business hours ; but his wife being one of our 
members, and he occasionally attending our 
services, placed us under special obligations 
to him, and we felt that we must seek an inter- 
view. He was a great reader, very bright but 
a quiet and reserved man, so that altogether it 
seemed very difficult to approach him; and 
while we thought of him often during the first 
year of our pastorate in that charge it was not 
until the second year's work was well under 
way that we found the grace and courage to 
broach to him the subject of his personal re- 
lationship to God. Despite the fact that he 
was rushed with business, we felt that, being 
his wife's pastor, a call would be in good taste. 
So we called two or three times, and then 
with a spirit of fear we ventured to ask him 
why he was not a Christian. He replied: 'T 
hardly know — carelessness, I guess. My father 
and mother were professed Christians and 
members of the Methodist Church, and I 
really think they were conscientious Chris- 
tians; but," he said, ''to be frank with you, 
there are some things in my way." 

We replied, ''Allow me to come to your 



54 Soul-Winning 

home and have a private interview with you 
about your spiritual condition." 

'^All right, if I can learn anything I like to 
talk with men." 

The evening was agreed upon, and when the 
time came we soon found that his chief trouble 
was that he doubted the divinity of Christ. 
One of the first questions he asked us was, 
''Can't a man pray to God the Father, leaving 
Christ out of the business, and be saved?" 

Our reply was : ''No. If Jesus is not divine, 
neither the Old nor the New Testament can 
possibly be true, for the Old Testament fore- 
told in prophecy his coming, and the New Tes- 
tament is a fulfillment of the Old; so that if 
Jesus is not divine we would have to reject 
both the Old and the New Testaments. Do 
you believe in the Bible ?" 

"Yes, I do not want you to think that I am 
not orthodox, but there are some mysteries 
which seem incredible." 

"Since you believe the Bible, you must know 
that you cannot be saved without Christ's aton- 
ing blood being applied to your heart, for in 
Acts 4. 12 we read, 'Neither is there salvation 
in any other: for there is none other name 
under heaven given among men, whereby we 
must be saved.' " 



Soul-Winning 55 

He said, "I do not understand the Trinity." 

''Neither do I fully understand it, but I 
believe it." 

I then called his attention to comparative 
religions, and asked him to contrast the influ- 
ences exerted by Christianity — where the Lord 
Jesus Christ is recognized as being not only 
the Son of Mary but the Son of God, not only 
human but divine — and those exerted by hea- 
then religions. 

We said, ''When you consider the elevating 
and ameliorating effects of Christianity is it 
not harder to disbelieve the divinity of Christ, 
granting that there are some mysteries, than 
it is to believe in him despite the mysteries ?" 

He acknowledged that the points were well 
taken, and the doctrines of the Holy Trinity 
and Christ's divinity must be true, or Chris- 
tianity would not have wielded such a tre- 
mendous power in the world. 

We evoked from him a promise that he 
w^ould attend church the next Sunday morn- 
ing. He kept his word, and our discourse that 
morning was an appeal to business men. At 
night we spoke on the atonement in Christ, 
using Acts 4. 12 as a text. We did not see 
him again for a whole week. On Saturday 
evening we telephoned him and told him the 



56 



Soul-Winning 



nature of the services which would be had in 
our church the next day. He said, ''I will 
be there at both services." 

On that Sabbath we had the communion in 
the morning. In the evening we emphasized 
repentance, and the relation each man sustains 
to his own salvation, and the part he must 
perform if he would be saved. The next 
morning I called at Mr. C.'s office, and he 
grasped me by the hand and said : 'T am glad 
to see you ; I am exceedingly glad I heard you 
last night. That discourse convinces me that 
if a man would be saved, he has something to 
do in the transaction." 

I said : ^'That is certainly so, Mr. C. Sup- 
pose we have another interview at your home 
some night this week." 

He said: 'T shall be glad to. Thursday 
night will suit me best." 

Dear reader, don't imagine that the victory 
was already won. I can assure you that a 
tremendous battle against doubt and sin was 
in waiting. The call was to be made at 7:30 
in the evening. I went at that hour and saw 
the family at dinner, so walked several blocks 
before appearing at the door. The task was 
so great that it seemed at one time as if my 
heart would fail me. I almost regretted hav- 



Soul-Winning 57 

ing made the engagement. I do not remem- 
ber ever dreading to appear before a congre- 
gation any more than I feared the meeting 
of that man in his own parlor that night. Yet 
I knew that it was God's work, and remem- 
bered the Master's promise, ''Lo, I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world." 
I knew that meant me that night. 

At the end of two hours and a half, after 
we had gone over each step carefully, using 
the New Testament as our foundation and 
guide, I asked Mr. C. if he was willing to 
take the steps which I had pointed out, and if 
we should bow before God and ask his help. 

He said, ''I will think about this matter." 

I said, ''Mr. C., have you decided to settle 
the question along the line and in the way we 
have explained it to-night?" 

He said, "I have." 

''Since that is true, your surrender to Christ 
will be easier now than at any future time." 

Remembering how often men come to Ka- 
desh-barnea and then turn back into the wil- 
derness, I reinforced the effort and with the 
most persistent and urgent appeal pleaded 
with him for twenty minutes more, when he 
said, ^'You may pray if you will." 

I said, "Mr. C., will you pray for yourself?" 



58 Soul-Winning 

He said, "I will." 

When we were through with the prayer I 
said, ''Mr. C, did you pray?'' 

He said, "I did." 

"Well, did Jesus hear and answer you ?" 

''He will," was the reply. 

"You are doubting. Remember what Christ 
says: 'Therefore I say unto you. What things 
soever you desire, when ye pray, believe that 
ye receive them, and ye shall have them.' " 

He saw it in an instant, and exclaimed: 
"Of course he has heard and answered my 
prayer. He has promised to hear me, and he 
is too good to deceive me." 

That moment the light of salvation flashed 
into his soul, for "with the heart man believeth 
unto righteousness; and with the mouth con- 
fession is made unto salvation." He believed 
and confessed, and the victory was his. 

My own soul was filled and thrilled with 
ecstasy. I felt that I never could think any- 
thing too hard for God any more, nor would 
I ever hesitate to be his messenger again. Be- 
fore bidding him good-night Mr. C. said, "I 
want to thank you for the interest you have 
taken in me." 

"The pleasure is mine. I have done nothing 
more than my duty as a Christian minister." 



Soul-Winning 59 

''Yes/' said he, ''that may be true, but there 
are so many who fail to do this kind of work/' 

I do not beHeve that anyone had spoken to 
him about his spiritual condition for a score 
of years. 

We may not all be equally successful in 
winning men to Christ, but may we not 
all have the joy of bringing some soul into 
closer touch with our blessed Saviour and 
Redeemer? 

Dr. Banks uttered a truism when he said, 
''How many times we impoverish our days, 
and come to the eventide with a sense of spir- 
itual pauperism, not because we have com- 
mitted outbreaking sins, but because we have 
been dull and indifferent to the spiritual oppor- 
tunities of the day that might have refreshed 
us and glorified us." 

Margaret Sangster's little poem entitled At 
Sunset contains an important suggestion: 

"It isn't the thing you do, dear, 

It's the thing you've left undone, 
Which gives you a bit of heartache 

At the setting of the sun. 
The tender word forgotten. 

The letter you did not write. 
The flower you might have sent, dear, 

Are your haunting ghosts to-night. 



6o Soul-Winning 

*'That stone you might have lifted 

Out of a brother's way; 
The bit of heartsome counsel 

You were hurried too much to say ; 
The loving touch of the hand, dear, 

The gentle, winsome tone, 
That you had no time or thought for. 

With troubles enough of your own ; 

*The little act of kindness 

So easily out of mind, 
Those chances to be angels 

Which every mortal finds, — 
They come in the night and silence, 

Each chill, reproachful wraith. 
When hope is faint and flagging. 

And a blight has dropped on faith. 

'Tor life is all too short, dear, 

And sorrow is all too great, 
To suffer our slow compassion 

That tarries until too late ; 
And it's not the thing you do, dear, 

It's the thing you leave undone. 
Which gives you the bit of heartache 

At the setting of the sun." 

Our friend Mr. C. did what all Christians 
ought to do, he united with the church. No 
one can afiford to turn a deaf ear to Saint 
Paul's admonition : ''Wherefore come out from 
among them, and be ye separate, saith the 



II 



I 



Soul-Winning 6i 

Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and 
I will receive you, and will be a Father unto 
you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, 
saith the Lord Almighty." 

When Mr. C. yielded himself to Christ his 
only child, a daughter, surrendered her life to 
her Redeemer, and they came into church fel- 
lowship together. Many a parent who is anx- 
ious about his child's salvation would solve 
the problem if he himself would come into the 
fold. 

Sounding the Battle Cry Anew 

When the revival season came in the year 
1904 the writer felt deeply concerned for the 
spiritual quickening of the church and for the 
conversion of sinners. The burden had been 
upon his heart for several weeks, and it be- 
came so heavy that he could scarcely sleep at 
night. For several days he had meditated and 
prayed over the matter, trying to discern the 
mind of the Spirit. He had raised the battle 
cry and led his church in its revival campaign 
the two previous winters, and while the num- 
ber brought to Christ was not large in either 
of those years, yet the church had been 
greatly quickened and a goodly number of 
souls had been converted, including several 



62 Soul-Winning 

substantial business men ; but now the question 
which confronted him was, *'Shall we under- 
take the third successive revival with the bur- 
den of a heavy pastorate, or shall we suggest 
calling an evangelist ?'' He knew if the matter 
should be submitted to the church it would 
vote to leave it with the pastor. 

Finally, without bringing the subject before 
the official board he got the consent of his 
mind to undertake the special meetings with- 
out calling to his aid outside help. That deci- 
sion having been reached, the meetings were 
announced and the church urged to give its 
most hearty support. 

The first week passed with a small attend- 
ance and but scant interest, so that the first 
Sabbath of the meeting the pastor was im- 
pelled to say some plain things to the church : 
"You force pastors to import evangelists be- 
cause you do not support them as loyally as 
you would a stranger." With tears in his eyes 
and with a passion for souls, he pleaded with 
the church to second his efforts in the work, 
which was at its inception. ''For the past two 
years," he dared to say, ''you have not given 
me the support I had a perfect right to expect 
of you in revival efforts. You pay me my 
salary cheerfully, and you very patiently listen 



Soul-Winning 63 

to me preach on the Sabbath, but you do not 
support the special meetings during the week. 
You do not know whether I can succeed or 
not. Give me a chance. Come out to the 
services this week and give the meetings your 
support, and, God's word for it, there will be 
results." He said further, *'If God has not 
sent me back to you for the third year to win 
souls for him, then there has been a serious 
mistake made in the appointments ; I have no 
mission here." 

The vote was put to see how many would 
attend each service that week. The response 
was most hearty and the effect electrifying. 
Business men sought out their unsaved busi- 
ness companions and urged them to attend 
the meetings, and in some instances appealed 
to them to accept Christ as their personal 
Saviour; and often the pastor's way was 
opened and access was had to the unconverted 
business men, through the untiring efforts of 
these men whose hearts were on fire with a 
new zeal for God and a fresh passion for souls. 
Need the writer add that the results were the 
most encouraging that had been achieved by 
that church for some years? *'For as soon 
as Zion travailed she brought forth her chil- 
dren." 



64 SOUL-WIXXIXG 

Xo pastor will ever undertake a revival 
effort if he waits for all the hindrances to be 
removed, and for the entire membership to 
be ready and in good working trim. Dr. J. 
O. Peck spoke truly when he said : ''In re- 
vivals the 'church' does no work, but only 
the individuals who compose it. The church 
is a vast thicket in which an arniy of skulkers 
may hide ; yet no individual Christian can 
escape his responsibility to God; the service 
which God requires of his children during 
revivals, in bringing many souls to righteous- 
ness, is a test and proof of loyalty to him." 
Fortunate is the pastor who in these times of 
spiritual declension can arouse his membership 
to an enthusiasm in soul-winning. 

Capturing a Young Business ]\Ian for 
Christ 

In the special revival just adverted to the 
author had his attention called to a young 
business man who resided in his part of the 
city, and he called upon him in his place of 
business and invited him to attend the services. 
He promised that he would try, but he did not 
come, and the pastor called again and had a 
more extended conversation with him, and 



Soul-Winning 65 

then sent one of the most discreet men of his 
church to see him. Finally the pastor called 
once more, and was astonished to have him 
ask, ''Did you send Mr. P, to see me ?" 

"Why do you ask?" 

"O, it was all right, but I did not think he 
would have had gumption enough to call un- 
less you had sent him. I have been doing 
business alongside of him for some time, and 
he has never spoken to me about the church 
and Christianity before. I declare to you if 
ever I become a Christian and join the church 
I will interest myself in unsaved men." 

We replied: "You are just the kind of a 
man we need in the church. Will you not 
come to the services and decide to seek 
Christ?" 

"Yes, I am coming." 

He did come, and was a most earnest lis- 
tener, but could not be induced to take a public 
stand for Christ. After he attended the serv- 
ices several evenings we called at his office 
again and asked for a private interview, for 
our interest in him increased as we came to 
know him better. But he said : "Let me alone 
now; these services are not doing me any 
harm. I will be glad to come to your home 
and have a private talk with you by and by, 



66 Soul-Winning 

but I am thinking, and there are some things 
I must study out for myself/' 

As the services continued from night to 
night he seemed more and more interested. 
Others sought and found the Lord; but still 
there was no move on the part of Mr. D. 
Finally, one night an appeal was made for all 
who were determined to seek the Saviour to 
rise to their feet, and he rose. At the close 
of the service the writer sought him out and 
expressed his gratitude at the stand he had 
taken, and said, ''Won't you go home with me 
to-night and let us have that talk?" 

He said, ''It is too late." 

*'No, it is not too late. We will have till 
morning if necessar}^" 

"Well, ril go." 

On our way to the parsonage he said : "Aly 
wife is not interested ; she actually laughs 
about it, and says she does not know why I 
want to go to the church and to see that 
preacher, for she declares I am good enough 
as I am. But I know I'm not good. I need 
salvation." 

We replied, ''It is surprising to know your 
wife's attitude, but when you become a Chris- 
tian she will change her mind." 

"I truly hope so," he said. 



Soul-Winning (yj 

When we entered our home that night I 
feh God would give us the victory. For more 
than two hours we sat with the Testament in 
hand, and tried to lead him to the cross. He 
told us that his worst and chief fault, as he 
understood it, was profanity. He said he rec- 
ognized his need of Christ, for again and again 
he had tried to refrain from swearing, but, to 
his own shame, had failed. We declared that 
the grace of God was just what he needed, for 
it would take all the profanity out of us. 

At last we went to God in prayer, Mr. D. 
pledging himself to pray for forgiveness and 
for the witness of the Spirit. 

Thank God, we do not have to tell men when 
they are converted, for we do not know. That 
is one office of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit 
himself ''beareth witness with our spirit, that 
we are the children of God." 

When we had risen from prayer I said, 
''How is it, brother?" 

He said, 'T prayed, but do not feel satis- 
fied." 

''Are you sure you are not making a mistake 
about feeling? Christ says, 'Ask, and it shall 
be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, 
and it shall be opened unto you : for every one 
that asketh receiveth ; and he that seeketh find- 



68 Soul-Winning 

eth; and to him that knocketh it shall be 
opened.' Now, Mr. D., I want you to be sat- 
isfied, but you observe nothing is said here 
about feeling, but about asking, knocking, etc. 
Christ puts our faith to the test." 

I turned and read Mark 9. 23 : ''Jesus said 
unto him. If thou canst believe, all things are 
possible to him that believeth." I also read to 
him Matt. 9. 2y, 28. But he seemed unable to 
take Christ by faith. I read i John 5. 10: *'He 
that believeth on the Son of God hath the wit-, 
ness in himself." Then I referred to Dr. S. A. 
Keen's Faith Papers, and tried to encourage 
him to believe by the light which these Faith 
Papers reflect on the revealed Word. Dr. 
Keen said: ''The witness of faith is the con- 
scious reception of salvation, the witness of 
the Holy Spirit is the conscious realization of 
salvation. A gentleman fell heir very unex- 
pectedly to an immense fortune. He could 
hardly believe that so much wealth had been 
bequeathed him. The legal papers were pre- 
sented to him, and on their testimony he ac- 
cepted, received the bequest as his own, but 
could not realize that he was rich, made so 
in a moment. When, however, he began to 
handle the mortgages and count the stocks, 
and control the lands into the possession of 



Soul-Winning 69 

which he had come, then came to him the 
reahzation that he was rich; that he was a 
miUionaire. The order of his experience was 
first the witness of faith ; that is, the conscious 
reception of all this wealth on the testimony 
of the legal evidence; then followed the con- 
scious realization that he was indeed munifi- 
cently endowed. So when the soul believes 
the exceeding great and precious promises of 
God's Word, that is, consciously accepts the 
heavenly treasure of salvation, it has the wit- 
ness of faith; it knows that it does receive 
salvation. But when the preciousness of this 
pearl of great price, the joy of the possession 
of this found treasure, the sweetness of saving 
power received, is consciously realized, it has 
the witness of the Holy Spirit." 

In spite of these explanations Mr. D. did 
not receive the light; the burden of soul was 
not lifted. He said, *'It is now midnight. I 
will go and study it out for myself." 

He had risen from his seat and turned in 
the direction of the door. The words of Isaiah 
occurred to us: ''So shall my word be that 
goeth forth out of my mouth : it shall not re- 
turn unto me void, but it shall accomplish 
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the 
thing whereto I sent it." 



70 Soul-Winning 

So we detained him by saying, "Now the 
fault is with you, Mr. D. ; don't go yet. God 
wants to give you the victory to-night." 

John 6. 47 was read: *'Verily, verily, I say 
unto you. He that believeth on me hath ever- 
lasting life." "These are Christ's own words," 
we urged; and handing him the Book asked 
him to read them himself. 

Once more we went upon our knees before 
the throne of grace; but the witness of the 
Spirit did not come to him. 

We emphasized Saint Paul's words: "For 
with the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness; and with the mouth confession is made 
unto salvation." He was again in the act of 
going, and I began to despair of the victory 
of which I had felt so confident. But I said, 
"Mr. D., Jesus Christ says, 'Therefore I say 
unto you, What things soever ye desire, when 
ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye 
shall have them.' " 

He exclaimed enthusiastically: "Why didn't 
you tell me that before ! I see it ! Believe 
that I receive it! and I have it! I believe it! 
and I have it!" 

He went home with a new song on his 
lips, and a hitherto unknown joy in his heart. 
Again God had honored his word. We forgot 



Soul-Winning 71 

the lateness of the hour, and exulted in and 
magnified the Lord. 

When Mr. D. reached his home he found 
that his wife had not retired, and his trans- 
formation was so complete that deep and pun- 
gent conviction seized her heart, and the next 
evening she rose and asked the prayers of 
God's people. At the close of the service I 
greeted her and said: ^'I appreciate the fact 
that Saturday will be a busy day for you, but 
if you would like I shall be glad to come 
to your home to-morrow and talk with you 
about your personal relation to Christ." 

She replied, ''Every day is a busy day with 
me, but I am sure I shall be pleased to have 
you come." 

As I returned to my home that night I felt 
exceedingly anxious for her salvation for her 
own sake. Then, too, I recognized the fact 
that it would be much easier for her husband 
to live a Christian life if she surrendered to 
Christ herself. Knowing that the church un- 
der the influence of which she had been reared 
taught confirmation rather than conversion, I 
feared that she might imagine that joining 
the church would be all that would be required 
of her. Remembering the words of Jesus, 
''And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 



72 Soul-Winning 

draw all men unto me/' and also remember- 
ing that one office of the Holy Ghost is to re- 
prove the world of sin, of righteousness, and 
of judgment to come, ''for when he is come 
he will reprove the world of sin," I felt that 
no more surely is the ''ear adapted to sounds 
and the eye to light than the soul is adapted 
to feel the power of Christian suasives." 

Dr. Daniel Steele has well said : "Obedience 
to Christ commends itself to every man's con- 
science. There is a door to every heart, and 
our Saviour knows the path to that door. He 
can awaken the sleeper within by a knock too 
gentle to destroy freedom. He comes with 
no sledge hammer. When I am lifted up I 
will draw (not drag) all men unto me. The 
drawings of Christ are universal, but not irre- 
sistible." The story of the cross has con- 
quered millions of hearts, and was ever new, 
and we believed that it would conquer this 
stubborn heart. 

I found Mrs. D. ready to receive spiritual 
instruction. Difficulties had to be cleared 
away, the plan of human redemption explained, 
and the necessity of regeneration enforced. 
Then came the struggle with unbelief, and a 
sense of unworthiness ; but finally the will was 
subdued and the unbelief was dispelled. 



Soul-Winning 73 

Arm in arm she and her husband united 
with the church. He in an ofificial capacity 
is utiHzing his splendid business abihty in the 
interest of Christ's kingdom, and she is a joy- 
ous, happy Christian. His business associates 
feel the grip of his consecration, for it is his 
delight to tell them what great things the Lord 
has done for him. 



PART V 

Children Won by Personal Effort 

In spite of the instruction and influence of 
the Sunday school, Junior League, and other 
organizations for children, where they receive 
special religious training, many parents are 
opposed to child conversion. First of all, there 
is that old prejudice, 'They are too young to 
understand." Then, too, parents are afraid of 
excitement. We cannot censure parents for 
being exceedingly cautious. No doubt thou- 
sands of children have had their feelings 
played upon in revival meetings, for ''it is easy 
by excited appeals and pathetic stories to affect 
children to tears, through their tender sensi- 
bilities, and to induce them to take steps toward 
beginning a Christian life. This may be done 
year after year without many of them becom- 
ing genuine Christians. Meanwhile they are 
being actually hardened against the real work 
of the Holy Spirit, and deluded, under the 
shallow emotionalism of fancied repentance 
and faith." Indiscreet pastors who have thus 
dealt with children are culpable in the extreme. 



Soul-Winning 75 

But the first excuse, "They are too young/' 
is not vaHd. The greatest and most successful 
of soul-winners have testified to the genuine- 
ness of child conversion when the children are 
properly instructed. 

Mr. Spurgeon, who was a careful shepherd 
of children, and toiled to bring them early 
to Christ, made this statement some time be- 
fore his death: "I have excluded from my 
church forty-two members, but I have never 
excluded one converted in childhood." Per- 
sonal, private work among children has great 
advantages. 

1. If mothers have confidence in the pastor 
they will usually be willing for him to have a 
private interview with the children, when they 
would not consent to their attending a public 
meeting where more or less excitement might 
obtain. 

2. Children can be better instructed alone 
than in the public congregation. 

It has been the custom of the writer to see 
the mothers and to have an earnest talk with 
them about their children ; and to enforce upon 
them the necessity of their children's being 
converted early. In this way he has overcome 
as far as possible any objection to the personal 
work. Then he has asked permission to see 



76 Soul-Winning 

the children in the home, and has invited the 
mothers to be present at the meeting. This 
conserves two purposes: it dispels prejudices, 
and it has a tendency to revive the mother so 
that the child will have a more congenial atmos- 
phere in which to live after accepting Christ. 

If children are not reached in a private way 
through personal methods, multitudes of them 
will drift out of the Sunday school and go out 
into the world to live careless, indifferent lives. 
It is a lamentable fact that many of our church 
services are destitute of children. The in- 
struction of children is relegated largely to the 
Sunday school teacher and the superintendents 
of the children's societies. 

How many parents think they have done 
their whole duty toward their children if they 
have gotten them ready for Sabbath school, 
and never think of taking or sending them to 
the church service. How many children say 
when they are old enough to attend the preach- 
ing service alone, ''O, I don't want to go to 
church, the service is not interesting." And 
how often have we been grieved to see them, 
when a little older, drift out of the Sunday 
school, and from under the influence of Chris- 
tianity entirely. Is there not room for more 
patience with children in the public congre- 



Soul-Winning "jy 

gation, and should not a more hearty welcome 
be extended to them? Are not pastors under 
special obligations to look after these little 
ones? 

Our faithfulness to the lambs of the flock 
is made a test of our love and loyalty to the 
Great Shepherd. ''So when they had dined, 
Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of 
Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He 
saith unto him, Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that 
I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my 
lambs." 

The writer has again and again led children 
to Christ one by one in the homes of their 
parents, or in his own home. Frequently the 
children have been converted and united with 
the church — always with the consent of the 
parents — before the father and mother were 
saved. With these strong incentives brought 
to bear on non-Christian parents, many of 
them may be brought to a realization of their 
need of salvation, and induced to surrender to 
Christ, who could not be thus influenced were 
their children not in the fold. In dealing with 
children he has adopted the same method used 
in the instruction of adults. He has simplified 
the instruction so that the child could fully 
comprehend it. 



78 SouL-WixxixG 

Children thus brought into the fellowship 
of the church have been among the most faith- 
ful of all who have sought salvation under our 
influence. Jesus said, ''Suffer Httle children, 
and forbid them not, to come unto me : for of 
such is the kingdom of heaven." 



PART VI 

A Revival Not Absolutely Essential to Soul-Winning 

The writer has seen no work on soul-win- 
ning and kindred subjects which has not con- 
templated the existence of a revival. During 
the first few years of his ministry he would 
have been surprised if conversions had been 
the rule, rather than the exception, in the 
absence of special meetings. Is not this the 
experience of the rank and file of pastors 
to-day ? 

When we reflect on Dr. Strong's astounding 
statement, that 'less than thirty per cent of our 
population are regular attendants upon church, 
that perhaps twenty per cent are irregular 
attendants, while fully one half of the people 
of the United States, or more than thirty-two 
milHons, never attend any church services," is 
it not time to ask in all seriousness, ''How 
may the unchurched masses be brought to 
Christ?" Can we excuse ourselves by saying 
that the churches are ever open and if the 
multitudes do not come they sin against light, 
we having no further responsibility? Does 



8o Soul-Winning 

not the command of the Master still obtain, 
*'Go ye therefore into the highways, and as 
many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage''? 
Does not the shepherd leave the '^ninety and 
nine in the wilderness, and go after that which 
is lost until he find it"? Can we excuse our- 
selves by having ^'Decision Day" in our Sun- 
day schools and young people's societies, and 
by thus securing the conversion of many who 
are already interested ? Who will go out after 
the multitudes who are not interested? 

To quote once more from the late Dr. J. 
O. Peck: "On the unconverted the regular 
services of the church have little or no effect. 
There must come some extraordinary and su- 
pernatural power that shall shake their sandy 
foundations ; that shall make conscience quiver 
under the living pain of personal peril; that 
shall arouse their sensibilities with the alarm 
of judgment to come ; and that shall move the 
perverted and stubborn will to yield, utterly 
and meekly, to the commands of God. Only 
the power of the Holy Ghost can do this. 
And the hammer of God's Word that breaks 
the flinty heart usually smites by the uplifted 
arm of the Holy Spirit in revival seasons." 

That able preacher and beloved man of God 
whose revivalistic ministry resulted in thou- 



Soul-Winning 8i 

sands of conversions, and who during the 
revival seasons did most efficient personal 
work, does not seem to have expected large 
results in soul-winning outside of the regular 
revival; for, as above stated, *'the hammer 
of God's Word that breaks the flinty heart 
usually smites by the uplifted arrii of the Holy 
Spirit in revival seasons." 

Let us have the revival seasons, by all means, 
but let us not depend wholly on revivals to 
bring the masses to Christ. The Holy Ghost 
does honor the personal effort put forth in 
Jesus's name outside of "regular revival sea- 
sons." The existence of a revival is not ab- 
solutely necessary to soul-winning. "Behold, 
now is the accepted time, now is the day of 
salvation." "Behold, I stand at the door, and 
knock ; if any man hear my voice, and open the 
door, I will come in to him, and will sup with 
him, and he with me." God knocks at the door 
of the human heart and makes the unsaved 
susceptible to religious influences and leader- 
ship, but expects some one who knows God 
to impart the instruction and lead the individ- 
ual to Christ. 

When Saul of Tarsus was arrested in his 
mad career and God told him that he was "a 
chosen vessel" unto him, why was he not con- 



& Soul-Winning 

verted then and there? He heard and recog- 
nized the voice of God, and became an honest 
inquirer. ''Who art thou, Lord?'' Why was 
he led in his bhndness and kept in that suffer- 
ing condition until Ananias could be sum- 
moned to his aid? God wanted to honor 
human agency in the conversion of this great 
opponent of Christianity. "And the Lord 
said unto him, Arise, and go into the street 
which is called Straight, and inquire in the 
house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tar- 
sus : for, behold, he prayeth. . . . And Ananias 
went his way, and entered into the house; 
and putting his hands on him said. Brother 
Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto 
thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, 
that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be 
filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately 
there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: 
and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and 
was baptized." 

There are thousands of men and women 
who are not thus profoundly convicted, but 
who would be brought under conviction and 
into a saved relationship with Christ if intelli- 
gent personal work were done in their behalf. 
It is the firm conviction of the writer that the 
supreme need of the hour is to get back to 



Soul-Winning 83 

Christ and apostolic methods in soul-winning ; 
and this will most surely bring us face to face 
with the unsaved individually, in personal 
effort to lead them to Christ. 

Dr. G. C. Lorimer reminds us that the 
impression has been zealously propagated that 
the transit of time from the nineteenth century 
to the twentieth is being ominously marked by 
the increasing debility and decay of Chris- 
tianity. This alleged condition of spiritual 
senility and decrepitude has been hailed with 
every token of satisfaction by one section of 
society, and has been equally lamented by the 
other. 

It is not enough for the church and its 
friends to reply that the religion of the cross 
is not the only great cause which has come 
short of the promises made and expectations 
excited by its character and earlier achieve- 
ments. That cries of ''failure" are heard on 
every side ; that freedom is held up to derision ; 
and that the harsh muttering tones of the 
anarchist are heard in denunciations against 
freedom, does not free the church from the 
implication of failure. The contributions she 
may make to sociology, the interest she may 
manifest in municipal reform, and the battle 
she may wage against the rum traffic may all 



84 Soul-Winning 

be commendable and just what the world has 
a right to expect of her, but if her efforts stop 
here she will give the enemies of the cross a 
tremendous advantage, for her mission is to 
purify the fountain whence these muddy 
streams emanate. "The whole head is sick, 
and the w^hole heart faint. From the sole 
of the foot even unto the head there is no 
soundness in it ; but wounds, and bruises, and 
putrefying sores: they have not been closed, 
neither bound up, neither mollified with oint- 
ment." 

Surely the mission of the church is to save 
souls; but how frequently we hear the cry, 
"We can't!" "Ah Lord^God! behold, thou 
hast made the heaven and the earth by thy 
great power and stretched-out arm, and there 
is nothing too hard for thee" (Jer. ^2. 17). 

We believe personal evangelism to be our 
imperative duty, and God will hold us respon- 
sible for its performance. Again and again 
ministers have said to us, "I can't do that 
kind of work; I have no ability in that direc- 
tion." During revivals some of these men 
have said, "We felt handicapped ; the unsaved 
would not attend the services, and while the 
church was somewhat revived the meeting was 
not what we had hoped and prayed for." A 



Soul-Winning 85 

few meetings of this character so discour- 
age a pastor of this type that he is afraid to 
storm the citadel of Satan and is henceforth 
utterly dependent upon imported ministerial 
aid. 

Again they say, as so many have said, "Re- 
vivals, and conversions, too, for that matter, 
have become things of the past." Is it strange 
that such men often seek other vocations? 
Pity it is that more of them do not seek and 
obtain other employment, for many churches 
would have been extinct ere this if they had 
depended for their reinforcement upon the 
material quarried from the world. 

We should not have anyone imagine that we 
are opposed to evangelists, for we recognize 
their great worth to the cause of Christ, and 
no doubt many of them are specially called 
to this field of labor, having the same scrip- 
tural commission as do pastors. ''And he gave 
some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, 
evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers" 
(Eph. 4. 11). But our contention is that 
every Christian, and especially every preacher, 
ought to be a soul-winner. Every Methodist 
minister admitted to the Annual Conference 
pledges himself that he will ''spend and be 
spent in saving souls." If we would save souls 



86 Soul-Winning 

we must be instrumental in their conversion. 
Bishop Fowler says, "This is our job." 

If each of us would become a personal evan- 
gelist the kingdom of Christ would speedily 
come; for we would not concentrate our en- 
tire effort upon a special meeting, but would 
constantly be on the alert for opportunities to 
gather sheaves for the great Master of the 
harvest. During all seasons and in all kinds 
of weather new recruits would be added to 
the church, and they would be a perpetual 
stimulus to it and keep its spirituality fanned 
into a flame. 

When the author was a student in an East- 
ern university he was appointed as a "supply" 
to a "student charge" in the New England 
Conference, and his presiding elder said to 
him, "This is the hardest charge on my dis- 
trict; possibly you may be able to help the 
people a little." In six months between fifty 
and seventy-five new converts had been added 
to that small, struggling society, and among 
those reached were a number of heads of fam- 
ilies. This work could not have been accom- 
plished had the Lord not honored his per- 
sonal efforts in winning men. 

Out of many incidents that cluster about 
that work, we give but two. Mother F. was in 



Soul-Winning 87 

her eighty-eighth year. She was a noble char- 
acter, we were told, but had never been con- 
verted. When we talked to her she said: "I 
have been a Bible reader from early child- 
hood and have prayed, but I never received 
any answer to my prayers. I have never been 
converted. I have often wished that I might 
receive the change of heart and know that my 
peace was made with my Maker." 

We said to her : ''Mother F., this is certainly 
your privilege in Christ Jesus. Do you think 
you would keep your daughter in suspense 
so many years without her knowing that you 
love her, or that you are willing to pardon any 
offense that she might have committed?" 

''No, no, I am sure I could not do that." 

"Well, then, surely you cannot suppose our 
loving heavenly Father could be less compas- 
sionate, for he has told us, 'Like as a father 
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them 
that fear him.' The fear mentioned does not 
mean a servile, but a filial, fear, just like your 
daughter would fear you, fear to do anything 
that would grieve you. You believe the 
Bible." 

"O, certainly; I could not disbelieve that. 
And it tells me that God judge th the right- 
eous, and God is angry with the wicked every 



88 



50UL-WlNNING 



day. It also tells me that the wicked shall be 
turned into hell, and all the nations that forget 
God." 

The poor soul was the very picture of de- 
spair. We hastened to reply: ''Jesus sends 
out a special invitation to you. Hear him: 
'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke 
upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and 
lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your 
souls.' This means you, for the Bible comes 
to us with a personal message. This promise 
is spoken to you as though you were the only 
person in the world who needs rest. Now, 
Mother F., man got away from God by listen- 
ing to the lies of Satan, and he must get back 
to him by listening to the truth of Christ, our 
blessed Saviour and Redeemer." 

"I have been hoping he would receive me 
before I am taken out of this world." 

"He will ; he has sent me as his messenger 
to tell you how to come to him now." 

After quoting and explaining still more of 
the reassuring promises left us in the divine 
record, we presented her case at the throne of 
grace, while she too pleaded with God to have 
compassion upon her; and we were not dis- 
appointed, for God heard and answered our 



Soul-Winning 89 

prayers. With an unwonted light beaming in 
her aged face she said, 'It is like a great bur- 
den lifted off my shoulders." 

Her joy was supreme, and her confidence 
was unshaken. Her peace flowed like a river. 
We can never forget the expression of glad- 
ness that came into her face when we placed 
our hand on her head in baptism. 

The second illustration represents a very 
different type of character. There lived in the 
village an ''old soldier" who was sixty-eight 
years old. He had a war record of which any 
man might be justly proud. He had served 
his country faithfully for four years, and had 
gone with Sherman on his famous miarch 
"from Atlanta to the sea." Having been over 
some of the Southern battlefields where our 
old friend had fought so bravely, we proved 
to be an interesting visitor. We called a num- 
ber of times before we could turn his mind 
from the civil war scenes, but finally one day 
we ventured to say: "Uncle Eben, 3^ou've no 
doubt been a brave soldier. You were most 
patriotic and would have given your life as 
freely as you gave your service if the demand 
had been made. You were loyal to your cap- 
tain. He could depend upon you in every 
emergency. But there is a battle that you 



90 Soul-Winning 

have not yet been brave enough to wage. That 
is the battle against sin in your own Hfe. 
Jesus Christ, the great Captain of our salva- 
tion, has not been able to depend upon you, 
although it was his mercy that preserved you 
in hours of danger and shielded you from the 
missile of the enemy.'' 

He replied: ''I am wiling to depend upon 
my record. It is true I have occasionally 
drunk liquor, and have indulged in profanity, 
but these things have injured me, and not my 
fellow men. I have treated my neighbors as 
I have wished them to treat me, and I do not 
think God will cast me off and punish me 
forever under such circumstances." 

*'It is not what you believe, but what God's 
Word teaches us. Do you believe the Bible 
tobethe Wordof God?" 

"Yes, I can't say that I disbelieve it, while 
there are many things in it that I do not un- 
derstand, and if a too rigid application were 
made of some of its teachings I should resent 
them; yet I do not want to be classed with 
the infidels." 

* 'Uncle Eben, the Bible condemns you from 
beginning to end. It lifts up a warning voice 
against profanity, intoxicants, and neglect. I 
shall go, and will you please think over your 



Soul-Winning 91 

condition and see whether or not you would 
be wilHng to answer to roll call at the judg- 
ment in your present condition?" 

He was suffering with dropsy, and it did 
not require a skilled physician to see that death 
would soon claim him as its victim. We be- 
came greatly concerned for him. In a few 
days we called again and inquired as to the 
progress he had made, but h^ still contended 
that he was willing to be judged according to 
his record. We suggested that a man might 
drift into a state of indifference so that he 
would feel little or no concern about his spir- 
itual condition, and yet his danger be most 
imminent. Then we told him we should be 
unusually busy in school, but should not be too 
busy to remember him three times a day in 
prayer, and we urged him to think of his spir- 
itual condition ten minutes each day. 

God says, *'My people are destroyed for lack 
of knowledge." They are destroyed because 
they will not think. ''The ox knoweth his 
owner, and the ass his master's crib : but Israel 
doth not know, my people doth not consider." 
So we have done something for a man if we 
can arrest his attention and get him to think. 

We did not ask him to pray, for we knew 
he would refuse to do it. But we simply 



92 Soul-Winning 

evoked from him a promise that he would 
devote ten minutes of each day to serious 
thought about himself and his relation to a 
future existence. He said, ''Yes, since you are 
interested enough in me to pray for me, surely 
I ought to be enough interested in myself to 
devote the little time you suggest in thinking 
of my condition, and I will do it/' 

The battle was then more than half won. 
One week elapsed, and we went to his home 
and found him in a more serious mood than 
ever before, and we dared make a bolder re- 
quest, namely, that he would pray for himself 
each day. That was a more serious matter, 
for his life had been a prayerless one from 
infancy. But we suggested a most simple 
form of prayer, and he promised to try to 
pray. 

When we returned home at the end of an- 
other week, and called upon him, he was ready 
for the instruction for which these weeks of 
preparation had fitted him. And thus, step by 
step, he was led to the Lamb of God, who 
takes away the sins of the world. For when 
we rose from prayer that November Saturday 
he had enlisted in the army of Christ, and 
acknowledged him to be the Captain of his 
salvation. How often people of his age, who 



Soul-Winning 93 

have neglected their salvation, are forgotten 
or neglected by us, but not so by the Lord of 
glory, for he is ready to receive all who will 
come unto him at any time. "And about the 
eleventh hour he went out, and found others 
standing idle, and saith unto them. Why stand 
ye here all the day idle? They say unto him. 
Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto 
them. Go ye also into the vineyard ; and what- 
soever is right, that shall ye receive." 

Only three months more of life were 
allotted to this man, who came in at the 
"eleventh hour." We called on him two days 
before his demise, when he was so ill that they 
were not admitting anyone. But he insisted 
on our being admitted, and to our inquiry, 
"How are you now. Uncle Eben?" he said, 
"O, I'm suffering terribly, but it is all right. 
Jesus is here." 

The day of his crowning was a time of 
supreme victory. He was able to walk the 
floor in the morning, and shouted, "Glory to 
God ! I'm so glad Jesus is here ! What would 
I do in this hour without him?" 

"The King of love my shepherd is, 
Whose goodness faileth never; 
I nothing lack if I am his 
And he is mine forever." 



94 Soul-Winning 

In another pastorate the writer became in- 
terested in a business man and his family. The 
wife and mother was reared in a Methodist 
home and had made a profession of Christian- 
ity when a child, but had failed to join the 
church. The husband had been brought up 
under different religious influences, but had 
never been converted nor had he ever united 
with the church. Theirs was a most interesting 
family; a well-regulated home; the children 
were bright and obedient. We coveted the 
whole family for Christ. We visited in the 
home, but indifference to spiritual things 
seemed to be dominant. 

Finally, the eldest girl, who was just bloom- 
ing into young womanhood, made a confession 
of Christ. We felt encouraged, for we thought 
that through her influence the parents might 
be reached. But, while they seemed glad to 
have their daughter unite in church fellowship, 
their own attitude was still that of complete 
indifference. 

More than a year passed, during which time 
this family did not attend the church. But 
finally we observed that they were in the con- 
gregation, and then we sought the father out 
in his place of business and told him that we 
were glad to see him in the church, and to 



SOUL-WINNING 95 

observe that he evinced so much interest. 
He replied, "We have become more interested 
in the church than usual." Then we asked 
him if he would allow us to come to his home 
and have a private interview. He very cor- 
dially granted the request. 

Having seen the wife, we told her of the 
engagement with her husband, and requested 
that she plan for the ''private interview." 

During our conversation, he said that he 
recognized the fact that he was a great sinner. 
He declared that appetite for strong drink was 
his besetting sin. He being a fine business man 
and always displaying in our presence the 
manners of a most courteous and refined gen- 
tleman, we were greatly astonished to hear 
him say that he occasionally became intoxi- 
cated and was unfitted for business for two or 
three days at a time. ''Again and again," said 
he, "I resolve to give up strong drink entirely, 
but I am ashamed to say it, when I would be 
sober, then I get drunk." 

He was reminded that that is the experience 
of multitudes who are throttled by the demon 
strong drink, and that his failure was in hith- 
erto depending upon his own strength, the 
appetite becoming stronger than the will 
power. "O, if my wife would only club me 



96 Soul-Winning 

when I disgrace myself and family in this way 
I could stand it better. But she is always the 
very embodiment of kindness and sympathy, 
and that breaks me all up." 

We replied : ''My friend, it is not a clubbing 
you need, but a new heart. The Lord Jesus 
Christ is more than a match for all of our 
appetites and sins, and if we come to him and 
give him right of way he will give us strength 
to resist temptation." 

We have boundless hope for the man who, 
even though he has imbruted himself by strong 
drink, will repent of his sins and accept Jesus 
Christ as his Saviour. God reaches down ex- 
ceedingly low to pick up a drunkard, and 
sometimes purifies him in the furnace of afflic- 
tion. John B. Gough was lifted out of the 
very depths of degradation and molded in 
affliction's furnace. Through his own dissipa- 
tion Cough's wife and baby went down to the 
grave, but he was finally rescued by divine 
grace. More than once he relapsed into the 
haunts of sin, but God managed to use him 
in rescuing at least a million of his fellow men 
before he called him home to glory. 

We recalled this and other instances of 
God's ability and willingness to save men from 
the power of alcoholism — this tyrant which 



II 



\ 



Soul-Winning 97 

has destroyed so many homes, blasted so many 
fond hopes, wrecked so many Hves, and 
damned so many souls. 

In personal evangelism we are forced to 
reckon with this demon, and were it not for 
the boundless grace of God we should become 
utterly discouraged. We should never coddle 
the drunkard and make him feel that his crime 
is but a slight infraction of the rules of pro- 
priety and therefore an excusable fault. But 
he should be made to realize that intoxication 
is a sin with the anathema of society and of the 
church, and with the curse of the living God 
resting upon it. 

And in dealing with this man we said: 
"While it is true that you have sinned greatly, 
it is also true that we have a great Saviour. 
Paul says, 'But where sin abounded, grace 
did much more abound,' and the only hope 
for you for time and eternity is to completely 
abandon yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ and 
plead his mercy. Have not your past failures 
convinced you that you need some power 
stronger than your own to break the coils of 
this terrible serpent which has fastened itself 
upon you?" 

He was very penitent, and wept over his lost 
condition. Then we explained the steps to 



98 Soul- Winning 

him, an explanation of which is given in this 
Httle vohnne, which if honestly and inteUi- 
gently taken always lead to Christ. Finally 
wt came to the point where God alone can 
help us, and we asked him if he would pray 
for himself. We do not, as a rule, ask seekers 
to pray audibly, for in the majority of cases 
this would embarrass them. They are not 
used to praying and they would be frightened 
at their own voice. ''Yes," said he, 'T will 
try to pray." 

Once more in the stillness of the night, alone 
with a struggling immortal soul, and in the 
presence of God, it was our solemn duty and 
exalted privilege to bear up to the throne of 
grace, upon the wings of prayer and faith, a 
brother for whom Christ died. O, how we 
rejoiced in the declarations of God's Word, 
and in the promises of his dear Son: ''Come 
now, and let us reason together, saith the 
Lord : though your sins be as scarlet, they shall 
be as white as snow ; though they be red like 
crimson, they shall be as wool." "For the 
Son of man is come to save that which was 
lost." "If thou canst believe, all things are 
possible to him that believeth." Our own 
faith claimed these promises for our penitent 
brother. We have learned that nothing is so 



Soul-Winning 99 

efifective in soul-winning as the Word of God. 
If men can be induced to believe that the Word 
of God is a special message to them, and true 
to them, victory is certain in a struggle of this 
kind. Soon after the prayer was ended, peace 
which passeth all understanding dawned upon 
his soul. 'This poor man cried, and the Lord 
heard him, and saved him out of all his trou- 
bles." In a few weeks he and his wife came 
into church fellowship, and are living happy, 
consistent Christian lives — happy because they 
are consistent. 

The soul-winner will be able to direct men 
to Christ when great calamities and afflictions 
come upon them. In the midst of a busy city 
pastorate the writer was summoned to the 
home of a family where a little ten-year-old 
boy was fatally hurt with a ''Fourth of July 
explosive." When he reached the room he 
saw that the child was so badly mangled and 
terribly mutilated about the head and face that 
death would be preferable to recovery. The 
parents' hearts were breaking, and for a few 
moments he could do and say nothing, for he 
was overcome in sympathy with their grief. 
The little child was a member of his Sunday 
school and the mother was a member of his 
church. 



100 SoUL-WlXXIXG 

Finally the writer was able to say to the 
father : "This is a hard blow that has come to 
you, and I can only commend you to the pre- 
cious Saviour, who alone can help you. Jesus 
Christ is the great burden-bearer and we are 
invited to lay our burdens at the feet of Jesus 
— 'Casting all your care upon him, for he car- 
eth for you.' '' 

The poor man sobbed out : 'T feel that God 
has sent this affliction upon me because of my 
wickedness. I have often promised him I 
w^ould live a better life, but I have neglected 
to do it." 

That was Sunday afternoon, and before 
midnight the death angel had wafted the spirit 
of little Frank to the bosom of Christ, and in 
the midst of this great sorrow the father 
yielded himself to the Lord Jesus, and as a 
member of the church he has lived above re- 
proach, and his actions have never been called 
in question. 

I cannot believe that God permitted the 
accident that resulted in the death of that inno- 
cent child on purpose to bring the father to 
repentance, but it is certain that God did use 
the affliction to his glory in bringing this man 
to a realization of his lost condition, and to 
a genuine repentance which resulted in his 



Soul-Winning ioi 

salvation. Paul says, ''And ye became fol- 
lowers of us, and of the Lord, having received 
the v^ord in much affliction, v^ith joy of the 
Holy Ghost." 

Many a man has developed Godlikeness in 
the crucible of affliction. Dr. Wharton, of 
Baltimore, gives a striking illustration of this 
in the life of Todd Hall, a detective. For years 
he v^as a very sinful man. Once when Mr. 
Moody was holding meetings Todd Hall was 
detailed to arrest a certain man, and as he was 
looking for him some one said, ''Todd, the 
man's gone down into the Moody meeting." 

So Mr. Hall went to where the meetings 
were held, and, as he entered, the usher said, 
"Yes, he is in the building, but he's away down 
near the front." 

So they ushered Todd Hall down the center 
aisle, and just as he walked down the aisle 
something which Mr. Moody said sent con- 
viction into his heart, and his attention was 
arrested and riveted on the preacher. He sat 
down and listened. The service being ended, 
the people passed out; the man whom he was 
to arrest went out with them. Todd Hall kept 
his seat, and one of the ushers came and said 
to him, "What do you think of D. L. Moody?" 

"O," he said, "I wish I could be a Christian." 



I02 SOUL-WIXNIXG 

The usher, being a consecrated Chris- 
tian, said, "Kneel down and I will pray with 
you." 

Both knelt and prayed, and ]\Ir. Hall was 
converted. He went home and told his wife, 
and she said: "Todd, I have w^aited many a 
day for this happy moment. I'll go with you 
into the church." And their little daughter 
said, "I will go, too. Won't it be nice, papa, 
for us all to join the church together?" 

The three went into the church, and Mr. 
Hall became a preacher and wielded a mar- 
velous power over his former companions. 

Dr. Wharton said that when he went back 
to Baltimore from an evangelistic campaign 
one of the first friends to meet him said, "Todd 
Hall's little girl is dead." And he said, "How 
has it affected his power?" He replied: "O, 
you ought to see him and hear him now. 
When the doctor said, 'Mr. Hall, your little 
girl is dying,' he just knelt dow^n and said this : 
'Dear, blessed Jesus, you gave her to me, and 
you have loved her, and you have saved her, 
and now I give her back to thee ;' and then, 
holding her hand and looking up, he began to 
sing: 

" 'Bear her away on your snowy wings, 
To her eternal home.' " 



Soul-Winning 103 

Dr. Wharton continued: ^^And she was 
gone. Todd Hall never knew what it was to 
work for God before. He rose from his knees 
and came out from his affliction transfigured 
with the power of God, and was burnished 
and purified in this crucible of affliction so 
that he preached with an unwonted power." 

Does the reader ask, ''Do you never fail in 
your personal efiforts to win men to Christ?" 
We answer, "Yes." No man will be blessed 
with uninterrupted success. The soul-winner 
must ever strive to succeed, but be prepared 
for an occasional defeat. Christ himself was 
not always successful, for we read, "And he did 
not many mighty works there because of their 
unbelief." "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that 
killest the prophets, and stonest them which 
are sent unto thee, how often would I have 
gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and 
ye would not!" 

The Master knew that his disciples would 
be repulsed and rejected, and he left instruc- 
tions for their guidance : "And whosoever shall 
not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye 
depart out of that house or city, shake off the 
dust of your feet." 

The writer has succeeded from the very first 



104 Soul-Winning 

in winning nine tenths of all those who have 
granted a personal interview, and with greater 
experience he loses a much smaller per cent 
than that. In the absence of a revival, he has 
witnessed from one to four conversions in a 
single week, of persons who have been brought 
to Christ through the method defined in this 
book. It is his firm conviction that it is pos- 
sible for every pastor to average at least one 
conversion per week if he would get the im- 
portance of this work upon his mind until it 
burns itself into his very soul. 

Is it not true that many a pastor exhausts 
the opportunity afiforded by a pastoral call in 
either listening to or indulging in gossip? 
How can we talk and laugh with imgodly men 
and women and never say a single word to 
them about their spiritual welfare? 

Let us not be afraid of giving offense. In- 
telligent people appreciate any effort put forth 
in their interest, even though they may not 
yield themselves to Christ ; and we would 
better offend a few persons than to allow many 
whom we might win to go down to ruin be- 
cause we are indifferent. We need to reflect 
upon this admonition : ''Take heed therefore 
unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which 
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to 



Soul-Winning 105 

feed the church of God, which he hath pur- 
chased with his own blood." 

How often professed Christians return from 
a social call made in the home of a non-Chris- 
tian friend without that friend being able to 
detect by a single utterance the fact that they 
belong to Christ! We are not pleading for 
a namby-pamby piety which would repulse 
intelligent people, but we do plead for an ear- 
nest, godlike piety that will impress preachers 
and laymen everywhere with the importance 
of being about "our Father's business." So 
surely as the love of Christ constrains us, we 
will follow in the footsteps of our blessed 
Saviour, "who went about doing good." 

A Scotch shepherd counted his sheep, and 
found that there were three missing. He went 
to the kennel where the shepherd dog lay with 
her little ones. He pointed to the woods, and 
then to the dog, and said, "Three sheep are 
gone. Go." She looked at him a moment, 
and then at her babies; then she was lost in 
the darkness. One hour passed, and then two, 
when she came in bringing two of the sheep 
which were lost. 

Again the shepherd counted his sheep, and 
found that one was still missing. Once more 
he stood at the door of the kennel and said. 



io6 SOUL-WIXXIXG 

'"One sheec is still missing. Go." She looked 
with : :t t ;?-:r into his face and then upon 
her liLue :nci. and again she was lost in the 
woods. One hour, then two, and then three 
passe i. a::l finally the shepherd dog came 
back, beaten by the wolves, pierced by the 
thorns, and bruised by the stones, but she had 
the sheep which was lost. The shepherd took 
the sheep and wrapped it in his plaid and 
placed it in the fold, while the poor dog stag- 
gered to the door of the kennel and fell dead. 
O, if that poor dumb brute with no hope of 
reward, no hope of heaven, but because of the 
httle flickering love it had for its master, would 
give its life for the sheep, how is it that we 
can sit idly by when our blessed Master, who 
has promised eternal life and heaven, stands 
with nail-pierced palms extended toward a 
world lost in sin, sa\-ing, "Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the gospel to even- crea- 
ture"? How is it that we can gaze upon his 
bleeding brow, and fail to obey him? 

"I gave my life for thee. 

My precious blood I shed. 
That thon might' st ransomed be. 

And quickened from the dead. 
I gave, I gave my life for thee ; 
Vrrr.t has: th:u given f:r n:e?" 



PART VII 

Preparation for Sotil-Winning 

The Methodist Discipline, under the clause 
^'Pastoral Fidelity," says : *Tn ourselves there is 
much dullness and laziness, so that there will be 
much ado to get us to be faithful in the work. 
We have a base, man-pleasing temper, so that 
we let people perish rather than lose their love ; 
we let them go quietly to hell lest we should 
offend them/' If this be true of those who 
have felt, "Woe is me if I preach not the gos- 
pel," is it not more likely to be a characteristic 
of the rank and file of God's professed fol- 
lowers ? 

I. We need wisdom. "He that winneth 
souls is wise." How often we hear good peo- 
ple say: "I can't win men to Christ. I am 
interested in them, and I love God and am de- 
termined to be loyal to Christ, but I do not 
know how to influence the unsaved to yield 
themselves to Christ." "If any man lack wis- 
dom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all 
men liberally, and upbraideth not ; and it shall 
be given him." Since God depends upon hu- 



io8 Soul-Winning 

man agency in the propagation of the doctrine 
of Christ and in the estabHshment of a world 
empire, it is his deHght to impart all necessary 
wisdom, in qualifying us for this God-given 
task of soul-winning. 

2. We must have faith. To become a soul- 
winner requires a mighty faith — faith in God's 
Word; faith in his willingness to use us in 
the salvation of men. ''This is the victory 
that overcometh the world, even our faith,'' 
and this is the confidence that we have in him : 
''That if we ask anything according to his will, 
he heareth us." Coupled with faith there must 
be an all-consuming passion for souls such as 
characterized John Knox, who spent whole 
nights in prayer crying, "O God, give me 
Scotland or I die." We should have a faith 
such as dominated the soul of Bishop William 
Taylor and such as characterizes Bishop Tho- 
burn. No one will ever succeed as a soul- 
winner without a mighty faith in God, and in 
himself as God's messenger. But we must 
remember that "faith without works is dead." 

Finally, the soul-winner must be spirit-filled. 
"And, behold, I send the promise of my Father 
upon you : but tarry ye in the city of Jeru- 
salem, until ye be endued with power from 
on high." "But ye shall receive power, after 



I 



Soul-Winning 109 

that the Holy Ghost is come upon you : and ye 
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, 
and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto 
the uttermost parts of the earth." ''And they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began 
to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave 
them utterance." We must not, we dare not, 
pray God to send the Holy Ghost upon us to 
do for us what we are unwilling to do for 
ourselves. How many church members there 
are who pray for a baptism of the Holy Spirit, 
that they may feel happy, and in the language 
of the late J. Clarke Hagey, D.D., ''How many 
souls have deluded themselves into the belief 
that because with eyes closed to all else they 
have dreamed of palms and thrones and songs, 
of robes and crowns and harps, that they are 
ripening for the kingdom of light and glory! 
The wages will be paid at the end of the day, 
not to him who sat in the shady arbors partak- 
ing of the luscious clusters, but to him who 
has wrought in the vineyard, whether that 
work be commenced in the morning or even- 
ing of life's decay." How often ministers of 
the gospel pray for the infilling of the Spirit, 
that they may have power in preaching! So 
long as this is the primary motive, we will pray 
for the fullness of power in vain. God only 



I lo Soul-Winning 

anoints for service; and he does not send 
the Holy Ghost to do for us that which we 
may do for ourselves. But when God sees 
that we are ready to follow the divine Christ 
in seeking the lost he will, in answer to prayer 
and in response to a complete consecration, 
send the Holy Spirit in all of his fullness into 
our hearts and lives. 

''Come, Holy Ghost, all-quickening fire, 
My consecrated heart inspire. 

Sprinkled with the atoning blood: 
Still to my soul thyself reveal : 
Thy mighty working may I feel, 

And know that I am one with God." 



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